For decades, it has been a sleepy, small town railway station, the existence of which many are not aware of. The Northern Railway, however, is giving the Gurgaon railway station a makeover so that its image matches that of the millennium city.
There are 14 pairs of diesel electric multiple unit (DEMU) trains that run between Delhi and Gurgaon every day, covering the distance in about half an hour. The railways now wants to attract the ‘MNC’ crowd of Gurgaon to use these trains, and has revamped the station to make it comparable with any city station in the Delhi division.
“Gurgaon is a hub of MNCs; you name them and they are all here. There are a large number of professionals working in these companies and many of them live here. All these people are now increasingly coming to the Gurgaon railway station,” said Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division, Northern Railway.
“The station is located in Old Gurgaon. Even six months ago, the condition of the station was different and we used to get a lot of negative feedback as people felt this was an underdeveloped station,” Mr. Arora said. That is when the railways decided to give the station a facelift and started working on providing new surface to the platforms, new and better platform shelters, cleaner access to the station, comfortable seating arrangements, more toilets, and beautification of the station’s entrance and facade. The improvements are now showing and more passenger amenities are in the offing. The railways is now planning a second entry to the station, apart from expanding the station building in the near future. Mr. Arora said the local authorities have been requested to widen and improve the access road to the station as that area is not under the railways’ jurisdiction. “The access to the station is congested even as the access inside the station has been improved,” he said. “We received help from the area MP, Rao Inderjit Singh, who released funds from the MPLAD for upgrading the railway station. We have also received help and funds from RITES as part of their CSR activity,” Mr. Arora said.
The railways is also planning to add a VIP lounge to the station, besides upgrading the existing AC upper class waiting area. While the entrance area has already been painted and beautified after adding a green patch, there are plans to widen the entrance to the building and beautify the booking counter right at the entry so that passengers find the station inviting. There are also plans to install a fountain at the station access road. “The improvements carried out and being planned for short term, are good enough for the next three to five years, but we have to plan better for the future,” he said. Apart from passenger traffic, Gurgaon sees a lot of freight traffic and the railways is planning to make it a better freight hub. It is tying up with companies to transport their goods through trains.
