The Ask #3: Is Station Development in current form a good idea? Need for ‘real development’

The #Ask is a series of articles with each article focused on one basic question that Hon’ble #PM and Minister for Railways (#MR) should ask of their teams.

March 24, 2025: “The Ask, Part-II: Bring Transparency, Ethics & Accountability-on house retention policy”. We focused on the need to remove those institutional #constructs which allow #corrupt and #manipulators to flourish. While PM Modi ji got himself elected as #PradhanSewak and works like one, his babus of #IndianRailways (IR) are stuffed with a sense of entitlement which is way beyond that seen in any other service including All India Services. Ask #2 helps identify one such issue.

Now that a set of first 19 and now 13 new #DRMs have been posted, one needs to see how many of those who had retained their government residence go back and occupy them. Of particular interest is outgoing #DRM of Vadodara, the kingpin of Khan Market Gang (#KMG). He has spent almost 30 years in New Delhi. He just wrapped up his tenure by presiding over a massive #Corruption scandal involving very young officers. The corruption panned multiple departments and was one of the reasons for a blanket stop being put on all departmental examinations.

On the other hand, he has been the darling of the #Minister and the #Chairman/Railway Board. One is keen to observe if #Twitter and #LinkedIn weigh more than real delivery on the ground. If presiding over the historic corruption scandal is also handled the way the mandarins of #RailBhawan handled devastating rail accidents, it will be another case of “we told you so”. Having caused massive damage to IR’s systems by being visible face of mess called #IRMS, this person is of keen interest and is seen as barometer of minister’s intent to have zero tolerance to nonsense.

March 12, 2025: “The Ask : Part-I” dealt with simple question-should we invest more on foundation or on fancy tents.

Now we come to Ask #3: Should we pull plug on ABSS?

Take a look of “list of 1309 railway stations of IR” here which are being developed as part of Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (#ABSS). We spoke to senior officers of #NERailway to understand how stations of eastern UP are being developed as your editor is connected to eastern UP by family bonds and knows many of the towns since past 40-50 years. It was shocking to learn that many stations which have been developed as part of #ABSS and earlier programs, hardly get one #Train in a day and we have invested crores of rupees in such stations.

In stations where there are very few two wheelers in parking now have acres of concreted circulating areas. Same is with #CentralRailway where your editor has seen all the divisions and most of the stations. While #WesternRailway connects more developed towns, it is not so in CR. List of towns sought to developed in CR will shock any prudent observer.

The photographs which we have seen shock us. Facade development is more of #tent-house variety which we see in every wedding—how would they survive usage or weather? #CR & #NER are country’s oldest railways—their buildings have survived for more than 100 years, but ABSS facade will not last even a year after inauguration, experts say.

While IR has failed to check corruption, ABSS, a project estimated to cost about ₹25,000 crore is grand portal to IR’s ugly under belly. IR has failed to improve speeds of trains, IR has failed to provide clean toilets, failed to provide clean drinking water, failed to connect small towns despite having powerful and modern engines, failed to speed-up the trains, and failed to provide basic amenities and confirm berths/seats to passengers but is investing in stations which hardly have any footfall.

Hon’ble PM #Modi ji must send his trusted officers to see and report on these stations which he would be inaugurating soon.