Railways Ministry revises categories of rly stations

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : In a major policy decision, Ministry of Railways has comprehensively revised categories of various Railway Stations. This follows direction of Minister for Railways & Coal,  Piyush Goyal to re-categorize railway stations taking into account their earnings, passenger footfall, strategic importance with a view to planning various passenger services and passenger amenities at stations in a more effective and focused manner.

The earlier criteria for station categorisation was based on the annual passenger earnings only. Stations were categorised into 7 categories: A-1, A, B, C, D, E and F. The criteria for categorisation of stations have now been revised to include footfalls at the station. The stations have been further segregated based on the type and clubbed into 3 groups i.e. non-suburban (NS), suburban (S) and Halt (H). Further these groups have been put into grades ranging from NSG1-6, SG1-3 and HG1-3 respectively, according to a PIB release.

In the old criteria, the number of stations with high passenger footfalls (handling high number of commuter and MST pass holders etc.) could not be covered into the higher category of station resulting in these stations being eligible for lower level of amenities. As per the new criteria, the number of footfalls has also been given equal weightage and is taken into account as criteria for categorisation of stations. Therefore, many stations like Kalyan, Panvel, Tambaram, Thane have qualified into the higher category and become eligible for higher level of passenger amenities.

Under this new scheme of categorization of railway stations, the stations have been clubbed into 3 groups namely Non-Suburban, Suburban and Halt. Further, these groups have been put in different grades ranging from 1-6.

At present, there are 5,976 Non-Suburban Railway Station, 484 Suburban Railway Stations and 2,153 Halts, taking the total number of stations to 8,613. This categorization of stations has been done for the period 2017-18 to 2022-23, according to thePIB release.

In addition, Ministry of Railways has given GMs full powers to sanction out of turn safety related works without any limit. The following amenities will be provided at all the stations irrespective of their category for safe performance of journey by passengers: Foot Over bridge, High level platform, and Trolley path for movement of wheel chair.