Ahmedabad rail station gets new look

Drop just the word "railway station" and, lo, up comes images of a congested place with unhygienic eating joints on the middle of platforms, creating depressing atmosphere, besides obstructing passengers’ movements. But Amdavadis can roll back and laugh at the rest of the country now, for the city’s railway station now presents a picture in contrast. The reason: the beautification process it is at present undergoing.

It is metamorphosing from the prototype railway station to the one with a spick n’ span look. A visit to platform number one, from where the process of beautification was set in motion around four months back, would confirm the new image.

The unhygienic eating joints, tea, refreshment and magazine stalls of different shapes and sizes - which had earlier occupied a great part of the platform space - have been removed. And new catering stalls with compact modular stalls of uniform design have come up inside the waiting hall of the station.

So the platform, which once presented a depressing look with catering and vending units dotting it like eyesores, now presents a clean look with lot of space for passengers to move around. And they also get to have clean snacks, tea and light refreshments served by bearers in clean uniforms in a clean environment of newly-built modular size stalls.

"The beautification work at platform no 1 is over and now the similar process will be undertaken in the other 11 platforms, where all old stalls will be replaced by stalls of uniform design," the officer on special duty, Western Railway, Ahmedabad, Raj Kumar Meena said. He said the project is being sponsored by the stall-owners themselves. The sole aim of the beautification process, according to Meena, is to provide more space and smooth passage to the passengers besides maintaining hygiene at the station.

The beautification drive began around four months back in pursuance of the Railway Board guidelines, Meena said. "Each stall at the station is being built as per the size fixed by the Board," he said, adding, "similar process will be undertaken at the Vadodara railway station very soon."

Under the new scheme, it is mandatory for stall owners to maintain hygiene within their stalls besides ensuring that their employees wore clean uniforms while serving the passengers. An important feature of the beautification process is a newly-built spacious South Indian catering stall within the waiting hall, which offers all South Indian dishes ranging from idli, sambhar, vada, dosa. uttapam to Rasam. "The stall was set up keeping in view of the demands of various South Indian passenger forums, for which the caterer contractor is charged Rs I Lakh per month", Meena revealed.

The project has, however, elicited mixed response from the catering contractors. Said tea and light refreshment stall owner Surjit Singh Arora: "The way the project is being implemented will help passengers a great deal." Many were not appreciative of the project. "Soon after I got my stall renovated by spending Rs 2.5 lakh recently, I had to dismantle it to construct yet another stall under pressure from the Railway authorities", a stall owner said on request of anonymity. Added another:

"They (Railway authorities) should instead remove parcel packets lying on the platforms which actually create obstructions for passengers." Meena justified the project and said, "The catering contractors have been minting money out of catering business, now they will have to spend some money to rennovate their stalls to suit the Board guidelines" Be that as it may, passengers are happy with the change. "The station, no doubt, is getting better and provides more space", observed a passenger Cyrus Mobedji. "Earlier due to unygienic atmosphere we could not have anything at eating joints now they are getting cleaner."

Compiled from local news media