The Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Urban Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for re-development of Railway Stations in tandem with Smart City. The MoU was signed today i.e., 19th October, 2016 at New Delhi in the presence of Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Railways and Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting. The railway stations and adjoining areas will be redeveloped on Smart City lines for enhancing passenger amenities, easy access to stations, enabling optimal utilization of land at railway stations, as a part of Smart City development.
Tirupati railway station of South Central Railway is in the list of 10 railway stations planned for station re-development to begin with. Shri Ravindra Gupta, General Manager, SCR was present at the function through video conference from Secunderabad.
In his address, the Hon’ble Minister of Railways described the MoU as an important landmark which is sure to bring together the synergy required for holistic development of cities, since railway stations are identified as icons representing the flavor of the cities. The station re-development will envisage provision of integrated facilities, he added.
Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting,stated that the coming together of Urban Development and Railway Ministry is a historic turnaround in development of cities, which will see qualitative improvement. He added that the city urban development and Rail development should go hand-in-hand. Railway stations shall convey the culture heritage etc., of their respective cities.
Shri Rajen Gohain, Hon’ble Minister of State for Railways was also present on the occasion.
