ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 (APP): Pakistan Railways is all set to upgrade and commercialize the Victoria-era Rawalpindi Railway Station aimed at facilitating the passengers and making it the business hub, considering its location in the centre of business activities.
“The Railway Station is built a century ago in a British style, the value addition to station and its surroundings would make it commercially viable and would generate significant revenues for all the stakeholders involved”, an official in the Ministry told APP.
He said the upgradation was already decided in a meeting that reviewed the upgradation as well as commercialization plan of Rawalpindi Railway Station, and observed that the railway stations will remain important commercial hub in the future, earning substantial revenue and generating economic opportunities at a large scale.
The official said that besides improving passenger facilitation, the redeveloping of Rawalpindi Railway Station can become a business hub.
As per the plan, he said around 100-kanal space available adjacent to Jinnah Road (City Saddar Road) would be commercialized, besides uplifting the railway station. However, the Victorian-era building depicting ‘Indo-Saracenic’ architecture will remain intact.
He said the main purpose of the plan is to redevelop the Rawalpindi Railway Station as a business hub and multi-model network; expanding platforms and creating separate cargo platforms; bringing inside the retail space; service apartments and motels; connecting it to all transport services; ensuring energy as well as water efficiency and commercially and financially viable interventions on the adjacent land.
The official said the main building of Rawalpindi Railway Station consisted of three sections included the freight section, the passenger section and the main offices.
The Railway Club building and Police Station are adjacent to the main building which has three separate entrances for regular passengers and baggage passengers.
To a question, he said that Pakistan Railways had already started to upgrade the five major railway stations across the country on modern lines to facilitate the passengers and help the department to generate more revenue.
“The purpose of upgrading the railway stations is to make them commercial hubs for business activities and facilitate the passengers,” he added.
He said the stations included Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta, while the department was taking other steps to improve the performance of Pakistan Railways and would provide maximum facilities to the masses.
The government had allocated Rs 50 million in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), in the last three years for the up-gradation and renovation of railway stations across the country, he added.
The official said the renovation of the railway stations had been approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and the department had already upgraded six railway stations in different parts of the country.
The names of the upgraded railway stations were Bahawalpur, Raiwind, Narowal, Okara, Sahiwal and Gujranwala.
The basic aim of the upgradation was to facilitate the passengers and improve the outlook and modernize the railway stations. Pakistan Railways had upgraded the passenger waiting halls, prayer area, operation offices, water filtration plant, toilets, passenger shelter, platforms, ticket counters, parking area and external development work.
