Eastern Railway’s New Farakka Junction is a railway station on the Howrah–New Jalpaiguri line and is located in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The railway station lies south of the Farakka Barrage. This station also serves as a gateway to North Bengal.
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In a historic initiative, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the length and breadth of the country on 6th August, 2023 under Amrit Bharat Stations Scheme.
This visionary project is a testament to the commitment of Indian Railways towards delivering state-of-the-art amenities, enhanced passenger experiences and fostering local economic growth. The forthcoming transformation of New Farakka Junction stands as a shining example of this mission in action.
The Farakka Barrage carries a rail-cum-road bridge across the Ganges. The rail bridge was thrown open to the public in 1971, thereby linking the towns of Murshidabad district to Malda, New Jalpaiguri and other railway stations in North Bengal. New Farakka Junction not only connects the local area but also caters to the communication needs of the employees of the Thermal Power Station there.
Now for the convenience of the passengers Indian Railway has taken so many initiatives for the development of the station. New Farakka Junction will also be redeveloped at a cost of Rs. 31 Crores as a part of Amrit Bharat Stations Scheme.
The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme will bring more investment, more workflow, more employment both at the time of construction work for station redevelopment in Farakka and also in post execution period when the railway station will become an economic hub of the locality.
At New Farakka Junction, as Amrita Bharat Station, in addition to world class amenities and facilities will have space for One Station One Product (OSOP) stalls following visionary guidelines of Hon’ble Prime Minister for bringing Indian indigenous product to the global market and take advantage of our better competitive ability.
Now the New Farakka Junction is all set to redevelop the stations as a catalyst of economic development of the city and also as platform for bringing local products to bigger market, materialising the Vocal for Local and Local to Global concept as visioned for boosting the domestic entrepreneurs and artisans by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
The New Farakka Junction will be facelifted and packed with better facilities & amenities. The standard elements of the redeveloped station will have the features as follows:
- The Station will be developed as ‘City Centre’ for attraction & convenience of the passengers.
- The existing buildings, façade & green concourse of the station will be improved and redeveloped.
- The redevelopment of the station will provide well designed modern Passenger Amenities.
- Provision of suitable Property development in the Master Plans.
- The station will also be developed for walking for pleasure with beautiful landscaping,
- The Local Art & Sculpture by local artists will also be displayed to attract the tourists & passengers.
- Toilets will be more clean & hygienic.
- The Boundary Wall will give more safety & security to the passengers.
- Parking for Private Vehicles will help to reach the destination easily & to avoid unnecessary gatherings or traffic jams.
- Decoration of Waiting Lobby Area, VIP Waiting Lounge and Cafeteria will be done for attraction and convenience of the passengers.
- Provision of 11 commercial Shops, Central Foot Over Bridge.
- Improvement of Electric Board Room, Parcel Office, Upper Class Waiting Halls Ticket Counter, Help Desk, RPF barrack, Open Food Court, Café and Commercial Area.
The flow of funds and plethora of Station Redevelopment work will create avenues of employment and new business opportunity and thus will bring the much desired Amrit of Economic Development of the city.
Source: Eastern Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): Eastern Railway
