Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Indian Railways is working on war footing to complete the works of the new railway station at Ayodhya as the Centre wants to showcase its work in the temple town.
The construction of new railway station started in 2018, which is coming up next to the existing station. It is expected to complete most of the works by March-end of 2022. Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are due in early 2022.
At present, the daily passengers' footfall at Ayodhya is around 4,000 per day. The Railways expects footfall will increase once the construction works of Ram Mandir are complete. "The new railway station is being built to handle more than 70,000 passengers footfall per day. The station will have all modern facilities," Virendra Singh Yadav, Additional Divisional Railway Manager said.
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Built at a cost of Rs 126 crore, the new railway station is one of the multi development projects initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in UP.
"Since Ayodhya Station falls under loop line, currently per day 22 mail and express trains halting or passing on the route and six Passenger trains are also operating, once passengers arrival increases, more trains will be introduced. More handling, more trains, the railways made arrangement in the new premises," Yadav said.
This is the first stage of the station. The second phase which is estimated to cost Rs 307 crore, will have a large waiting area, new platform, approach road, parking area for pilgrims. The state government is in the process of acquiring land, said Lallu Singh, BJP MP from Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency.
Singh refused to link station development and upcoming Assembly elections. "BJP never seek votes in the name of the temple. Since Ayodhya is an important pilgrim place, the BJP government both at the Centre and state working together to improve the infrastructure of the temple town," he said.
The new station will be a major hub as the majority of pilgrims are expected to visit Ayodhya via train. This will also be the largest station dedicated to pilgrims in UP. The design of the railway station structures was inspired by the Shree Janmabhoomi temple, with domes, long "shikhars" and towering pillars.
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