Long-pending Ajni station upgrade finally gets a push

Nagpur: Finally, plans for major upgrade of the Ajni railway station will see the light of the day as the Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA), a statutory authority under the ministry of railways, has floated tender for the project.
The last date for submission of bids is September 29. A pre-bid meeting was also held on August 17. The estimated cost of the redevelopment project to be done in engineering procurement and construction mode is over Rs301 crore. The RLDA has already chalked out a plan to redevelop the Nagpur station as a world-class facility at an estimated cost of Rs536 crore.
There has been a long-pending demand from passengers and politicians to redevelop Ajni into a terminus. It was announced in the budget to develop it as a satellite station. Barring some cosmetic changes and starting of a couple of mail/express trains in 2013, the station was never developed in the true sense.
As per the tender documents, the new features that will be part of the Ajni station redevelopment include a modern entrance on the eastern side with sufficient parking and a circulating area. It will have a wide road connecting to Ajni road from near Wanjari Nagar flyover.
The works include an 18-metre-wide foot over bridge (FOB) connecting the east side entrance to platforms and concourse. Currently, there is no entrance on the eastern side and there is also no FOB to cross over.
Senior RLDA officials said that a G+3 building will be constructed on the east side and later developed into a 9-storey structure. “There will be booking counters, arrival and departure halls in this building with escalators,” they said.
“There will be four additional platforms apart from the existing three to handle more number of trains. The new platforms will not be part of the redevelopment work but their work will be taken up parallelly with ongoing yard remodelling works by the construction wing,” they said.
The new plan includes the development of a 72-metre-wide concourse above the 7 platforms that will have a large waiting area, a lounge, a food court and other passenger amenities.
Ajni, 2.8km from Nagpur main station on the Delhi-Chennai route, is mainly used by residents of central, west, south-west and southern suburbs of the city and short-distance daily travellers. Many trains have a brief stop of about two minutes at this station.
Almost 80% passengers in trains terminating at Nagpur alight at Ajni while trains originating from Nagpur station get 40% filled up here.
Alok Patel, a railway project analyst, said, “We are relieved to see that redevelopment of Ajni station will move forward even without the IMS. However, no clear timelines are available for the completion of the project. Thanks to multiple delays and lack of political push, Nagpur has missed many opportunities to upgrade railway infrastructure.”
“Plans for the redevelopment of both Nagpur and Ajni stations should have been more ambitious and grander than they are now. Though around Rs800 crore will be spent combined on both the stations, smaller stations are getting more iconic designs and fully covered platform areas,” said Patel.
Bharatiya Yatri Kendra (BYK) general secretary Basant Kumar Shukla welcomed the move. Shukla said, “Timely execution of the redevelopment project will be key to its success. Nagpur has seen many big announcements on railway transport over the past few years. None have materialized so far.”
“All connectivity projects around Nagpur are delayed by several years with no sign of improvement. Hopefully, Nagpur and Ajni redevelopment will go as per schedule,” said former ZRUCC member Pravin Dabli.