Thirteen railway stations in Karnataka will get a facelift in the first phase of Indian Railways' ambitious Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS).
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the upgrade of 508 railway stations across India under ABSS.
In Karnataka, four railway zones will upgrade 13 stations in the first phase.
The South Western Railway (SWR) will develop six stations in the Hubballi division and two in the Mysuru division at a total cost of Rs 172.7 crore.
The Central Railway (CR) will upgrade three railway stations, and the South Central Railway (SCR) and the Southern Railway (SR) will do so for one each.
In the 2023-24 budget, the railways announced the upgrade/redevelopment of 1,275 stations, including 55 in Karnataka, under ABSS.
The scheme entails preparing master plans and implementing them in phases to improve amenities such as station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products, better passenger information systems, executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc, the railways said in a statement.
Other features are improvements to station buildings, integration with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for the differently abled, ballastless tracks, roof plazas, and creation of city centres in the long term, the statement added.
Rail enthusiast Sanjeev Dyamannavar called the scheme "a complete waste of money" and asked the railways to address basic problems such as train delays and facilities on the platform.
"In the name of modernisation, the railways is beautifying stations and wasting funds and land," he said.
He recalled how a tunnel aquarium at the KSR Bengaluru railway station, touted as India's first, was closed in just two years.
He also criticised the concept of city centres, saying people don't visit railway stations for entertainment but to catch trains.
Dyamannavar said the railways should introduce day trains between major cities in Karnataka, construct platform shelters and foot overbridges and address level-crossing, curvature and gradient issues.
He said the railways should sort out train detection issues at Mangaluru Junction and build two more platforms at Harihar.
He wondered why the railways had failed to run a train from Bidar to Bengaluru via Kalaburagi on the new line.
Station upgrade plan (Phase 1):
SWR: Ghataprabha, Gokak Road, Alnavar, Ballari, Koppal, Gadag, Harihar and Ariskere.
CR: Kalaburagi, Shahabad and Wadi.
SCR: Bidar
SR: Mangaluru Junction
Future upgrades
SWR: Bangarpet, Kengeri, KR Puram, Mandya, Channapatna, Malur, Ramanagar, Tumakuru, Whitefield, Doddaballapur, Malleswaram, Channasandra, KSR Bengaluru, Hubballi, Hosapete, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Almatti, Munirabad, Badami, Davangere, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Sagar Jambagaru, Shivamogga Town, Subrahmanya Road, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Ranebennur, Talguppa, Tiptur, Bantwal, Sakleshpur and Mysuru.
Belagavi and Dharwad were recently redeveloped. Bengaluru Cantonment and Yeshwantpur are undergoing redevelopment.
SCR: Raichur and Yadgir
SR: Mangaluru Central