Parliament Question: Renovation of Meerut City Station

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1644 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025 RENOVATION OF MEERUT CITY STATION †1644. SHRI ARUN GOVIL: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) whether the approved renovation work of Meerut city station is likely to start soon, if so, the details thereof; (b) whether daily late running of the shuttle train from Meerut to Delhi causes inconvenience to daily commuters, if so, the details thereof; (c) whether running a train from Meerut to Bijnor leads to development of Hastinapur and the entire region, if so, the details thereof; (d) whether the upgradation of Kharkhanda station is pending for ten years, if so, the details thereof; (e) whether a train is likely to start running from Meerut to Mathura- Vrindavan via Hapur, if so, the details thereof; and (f) whether the daily passenger train from Meerut to Khurja is likely to run thrice a day as before, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (f): Meerut city railway station has been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. The master plan of the Meerut City redevelopment work envisages construction of new station building on main entry and second entry side, improved waiting area, construction of12 m and 06 m wide foot over bridge, provision of lifts and escalators, platform up-gradation, provision of platform shelters, improvement to circulating area and parking facility and other passenger amenities. So far, 1337 stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme including 157 stations located in the State of Uttar Pradesh. Presently Phase-I work of 105 stations have been completed and works have been taken up at 1110 stations. Further, development works at railway stations under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme in the state of Uttar Pradesh have been taken up at a good pace. Till now, phase-I works of 20 stations (Ayodhya Dham, Balrampur, Bareily City, Bijnor, Fatehabad, Gola Gokarnath, Gomti Nagar, Govardhan, Govindpuri, Hathras City, Idgah Agra Jn., Izzatnagar, Mailani, Pokhrayan, Ramghat Halt, Saharanpur Jn., Siddharth Nagar, Suraimanpur, Swaminarayan Chappia, Ujhani) in the state of Uttar Pradesh have been completed under this scheme. The works at other stations have also been taken up at good pace and progress of some of above stations is as given below: At Modi Nagar station, work of improvement to station building, improvement to waiting area and toilets, 12m wide Foot Over Bridge, new platform shelters, have been completed and work of minor finishing items of building, platform surfacing, signage, improvement to circulating area and parking have been taken up. At Sitapur Junction station, work of improvement of old station building, platform flooring, platform shelter, boundary wall have been completed and works of construction of new station building foundation, Foot Over Bridge, pay &use toilet renovation, circulating area, parking etc. have been taken up.At Jaunpur Junction station, structural work of new station building, platform shelter and toilet block have been taken up. At Lucknow (Charbagh) station, the structural works of the second entry station building, TTE Running Hostel, Store Depot have been completed and masonry work including other finishing works, concourse, Foot Over Bridge, second entry circulating area, main entry external development and platform no. 10/11 works have been taken up. At Prayagraj station, the structural work of Rail Mail Service building, parcel building, arrival buildings, basement plaza at second entry, Electrical substation have been completed and finishing work of these structures have been taken up. Extension work of Foot Over Bridge no. 2 has been completed. Structural work of second entry station building, work of air concourse and relocated structures have been taken up. At Ghaziabad station, structural work of station building at main entry side and second entry side, foundation work of Foot Over Bridge, roof plaza, electrical substation at main entry side and second entry side, Magistrate building, Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force buildings have been taken up. The Amrit Bharat Station scheme envisages development of stations on a continuous basis with a long-term approach. It involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, platform surfacing and cover over platform, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, executive lounges, nominated spaces forbusiness meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station. The scheme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term. Development/upgradation of stations on Indian Railways is a continuous and ongoing process and works in this regard are undertaken as per requirement, subject to inter-se priority and availability of funds. The priority for development/upgradation of stations is accorded to higher category of station over lower category of station while sanctioning and executing the works. At Kharkhoda station, the work of provision of one additional high level platform along with raising of existing platform has been completed and the work for provision of foot over bridge has been taken up. Development / upgradation of stations including under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is generally funded under Plan Head-53 ‘Customer Amenities’. The details of allocation under Plan Head-53 are maintained Zonal Railway-wise and not work-wise or station-wise or State-wise. Meerut City railway station falls under the jurisdiction of Northern Railway for which a total allocation of Rs 2216 crores (Budget Estimate) has been made for the financial year 2025-26 under Plan Head-53. Further, development/redevelopment/upgradation of Railway Stations is complex in nature involving safety of passengers & trains and requires various statutory clearances such as fire clearance, heritage, treecutting, airport clearance etc. The progress also gets affected due to brown field related challenges such as shifting of utilities, (involving water/sewage lines, optical fiber cables, gas pipe lines, power/signal cables etc.) infringements, operation of trains without hindering passenger movement, speed restrictions due to works carried out in close proximity of high voltage power lines etc. and these factors affect the completion time. Therefore, no time frame can be indicated at this stage. Meerut is connected to Hapur by 14 trains services whereas Hapur is connected to Bijnor by 4 train services. Passengers of Meerut desirous to go to Bijnor may avail changeover at Hapur station. Further, Final Location Survey of Meerut-Hastinapur-Bijnor (63.5 Km) new line has been sanctioned for preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR). After firming up of Detailed Project Report (DPR), sanctioning of project requires consultation with various stake-holders including State Governments and necessary approvals viz. appraisal of NITI Aayog, Ministry of Finance etc. As sanctioning of projects is a continuous and dynamic process, exact timelines cannot be fixed. Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, other public representatives, Railway’s own operational requirement, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throwforward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds.Indian Railways makes all possible efforts to run trains on time. Several factors affect punctual running of trains which include path constraints, asset failures, alarm chain pulling, agitations, cattle run over and other unforeseen circumstances. Based on assessments of factors impeding the punctual running of trains, remedial measures, both short term and long term, are initiated. At present, Meerut-Mathura sector is being served by 20 train services. Similarly, Hapur-Mathura sector is being served by 02 train services and Meerut-Hapur sector is served by 14 train services. Moreover, Meerut- Khurja sector is served by 08 train services including daily services of 54401/02 Khurja-Meerut City Passenger, 54405/06 Khurja-Meerut City Passenger and 14163/64 Subedarganj-Meerut City Sangam Express. Besides, introduction of new trains and increase in frequency of existing train services are on-going processes on Indian Railways subject to traffic justification, operational feasibility etc. ****