New Delhi Railway Station to be shut at year-end for renovation? Govt clarifies

The Ministry of Railways on Monday clarified that New Delhi Railway Station will not be shutting down by the end of this year for redevelopment work, contrary to recent reports in some media outlets.

“It is to announce that New Delhi Railway Station will never be shutdown,” the minister said in a statement.

“It may be noted that when a railway station undergoes redevelopment, a few trains are diverted/regulated as per requirement. Information about such diversions/regulations of trains is notified well in advance,” it added.

The clarification comes after some media outlets reported that the New Delhi Railway Station was “scheduled to close temporarily due to redevelopment” as part of a renovation plan. The reports also claimed that the plan to move impacted trains to nearby railway stations, including Anand Vihar, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Cantt, and Sarai Rohilla, was already in place.

Revamping railway stations

Several colonial-era railway stations across the country are undergoing major transformations into city centres under the Union government’s Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. This initiative aims to reshape the city-station relationship by developing or redeveloping 1,318 railway stations nationwide. Among these are stations in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), including New Delhi, Delhi Cantonment, Anand Vihar, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad.

In September 2002, the ministry of railways posted photos of the proposed futuristic, dome-shaped, glass building - the redeveloped New Delhi Railway Station – on X. As per the proposed plan, the station will have a 40-storey twin tower, multi-level car parking, and pick-up and drop zones. The built-up area will be about 2.22 lakh square metres.

The twin tower will house offices, retail shops and will also have space for a hotel. The railways will get its own office - 45,000 square metres. 91 bus bays, 1,500 ECS parking, skywalks for pedestrians and metro passengers will be developed on site.