You travel all way round from Howrah to Delhi and you are just 10 minutes away from your destination. But, at Tilak Bridge you get stuck for half an hour due to the congestion of rail route ! Does this sound familiar? This situation may probably no longer trouble you. New Delhi railway station is upgrading its existing facilities.
“New Delhi railway station has added 600 routes to the earlier 690 routes at northern railway”, says Mr. Rajiv Saksena, chief director of public relation, northern railway. “It is a part of our route relay interlocking (RRI system ) upgradation plan which we have already started working on. We have installed a new RRI system for New Delhi railway station that replaced the previous British modeled RRI system”, says Mr. Saksena.
RRI has been installed in all the major stations and junctions in India. According to this system, train on a particular route recieves signals for its acceleration which is controlled by closest power station of RRI system. A.S. Nagi, public relation officer of northern railway says, “The upgraded power station of northern railway is located in between Sadar Bazaar and New Delhi Station. Herein, operators sit and give signals to trains about the occupied and unoccupied tracks. There lies a clear layout in front of them which helps them to forsee train’s arrival and departure”.
Meanwhile, the question arises that how travellers at northern route are set to reap the benefits of the upgradation . “Incorporation of this remodeling of New Delhi Railway station plan has enhanced the train handling capacity of the Station by 33%. New Delhi station can receive more trains than ever before”,says Mr. Rajiv Saksena.
Despite this enhancement process, delay in train depurture from New Delhi station is common place. People claim to wait for two to four hours. In this regard, Mr. Nagi explains : “Chain pulling, road mishap, bridge constructions etc are the reasons for delay.Our teritory of working under new RRI system is from Tilak Bridge, New Delhi to Sadar Bazar. When one train is late due to delayed departure from one station, it obviously affects the other train queing in the line. A train can only accelerate once it gets signal from RRI. Construction of new tracks will provide a solution in connection to the whole train delay issue”.
Apart from new RRI system that has costed Indian Railway Rs 27crore, New Delhi station has something more for the passengers.“There will be four more island platforms as a part of our enhancement programme in order to handle the increasing four lakh passengers in the peak seasons”, says railway officials.
“There is a construction work of 80,000 square feet station building going on at Ajmeri gate. It will have more AC waiting room, plasma TV, touch screen enquiry system and also AC ticketing area”, says Mr. Saksena .
However, not every one is satisfied with the services provided by the Northern Railway . Sushant , an MA. student from Delhi University says, “I just don’t know what this upgradation is meant for. Railway stations are always so dirty and fares in Express trains are so high. With cutting fares, railway can think to serve their best”.
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