With food court, shops, Charbagh to get makeover

LUCKNOW: The historical Charbagh railway station is set to be beautified and revamped with modern passenger amenities.
To meet the increased passenger footfall and frequency of trains, two additional platforms, four line entries (before the station, for clearance of tracks) and four line exits will be constructed. This would help delays created by trains getting stuck in the ‘outer area’ due to congestion on platforms.
Northern Railway will also develop a second entrance behind the main building on Mughal, Awadhi and Rajput architectural theme.Work will begin from the last week of January.
The design of the old building will be modelled on the exiting one. An underground multilevel car parking facility will be made to reduce congestion which occurs at peak hours.
An underground subway to connect all platforms will be constructed along with two buildings for parcel-carrying vehicles. The subway will have first-aid facility and a doctor desk. It will be 10 metres wide.
Platforms will have modern washrooms, deluxe waiting rooms, elevators, polyclinics, food courts, multibrand shopping area, ATMs, help desk and drinking water.
As of now, more than 300 trains are handled by Lucknow station at nine platforms daily.
The total cost of the construction will be around Rs 600 crore.
2 satellite stations to be developed: As another part of the project, NR will develop Alamnagar station as a satellite station of Charbagh. This project will help divert all 36 goods trains and some express and passenger trains also. This will help increase the number of express and superfast trains at Charbagh.
NR has also planned to revamp Manaknagar railway station to decongest train traffic from Charbagh. This will speed up movement of trains and prevent delays. The station will be equipped with facilities like public address system, LED screens, cafeteria, waiting lounge, modern toilets, help desk and parking area.