Railway station on cards at Basai, may link southern cities
The Millennium City’s railway connectivity is set to get a boost. A new station near Basai crossing, close to Dwarka Expressway junction, has been proposed in Sector 101. At present, the city has only one major station that connects to other cities.
The proposal by the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (HRIDC) came up earlier this month at a meeting with officials of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and revenue department. Two previous submissions had failed to cut ice.
“We had a meeting with the officials where we tabled this idea. We told the stake holders that after demand mapping and analyzing the future expansion of inter and intra-regional mobility we have identified the area,” HRIDC managing director Dinesh Deshwal told TOI.
The project would need to get several clearances, including one from Indian Railways. HRIDC officials claimed that the station will reduce the pressure on Sarai Rohilla and New Delhi railway stations in the capital. It is expected to connect to Chandigarh, Nagpur and Chennai, and several other cities. The project will require about 25 acres of land, the officials said, and claimed that it will have better infrastructure and security than the existing railway station.
A bus stop and a Metro station are also being planned in order to develop the area into a multi-modal transit hub. With the 130-km-long Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project slated to come up, the existing station, which connects to Rajasthan and Gujarat, would not be enough to handle the passenger load.
Moreover, a terminal for coaches — with facilities for maintenance, operation and inspection of the trains — is being built in Bijwasan. “With the orbital rail project and the coach facility coming up, we need a full-fledged station that is easily accessible and can handle a bigger network,” said Deshwal. HRIDC said that the location for the new station would work well.
“It has adequate area and is in the middle of the city. It’s a good point to develop a transit point from where people can take trains and other local transit options like buses and metro,” said an HRIDC official. While the plan to redevelop Garhi Harsau as Gurugram’s main station had received the state cabinet’s nod, it failed to materialise as the land available for its construction wasn’t enough.
Source : TOI