Lok Sabha Question No. 141 (STARRED), answered on 2016-05-04
Subject: Passenger Amenities at Railway Stations
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: SANJAY SHAMRAO DHOTRE, BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 141 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.05.2016

## PASSENGER AMENITIES AT RAILWAY STATIONS

- *141. SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE: SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the norms/criteria laid down for categorisation of railway stations in the country;
- (b) whether some of the railway stations have passenger amenities below their prescribed criteria/norms  and if so, the details of such stations, zone-wise;
- (c) the salient features of the Adarsh Station Scheme being implemented by the Government for improvement of passenger amenities at railway stations;
- (d) whether the Government gives special impetus on the improvement of passenger amenities at small and medium railway stations across the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  other  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  improve  passenger amenities at railway stations across the country?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS

( SHRI SURESH PRABHAKAR PRABHU )

- (a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

***

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  STARRED QUESTION  NO.141  BY  SHRI  SANJAY  DHOTRE  AND  SHRI  BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB  TO  BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  04.05.2016  REGARDING PASSENGER AMENITIES AT RAILWAY STATIONS

(a) Stations have been categorized in seven categories, namely 'A-1', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D',  'E'  and  'F'  based  on  the  annual  earnings  from  passenger  traffic  at  the stations. The present categorisation is based on the earnings of 2011-12. This categorisation exercise is done after every five years. The criteria laid down for categorisation of railway stations in Indian Railways is as under:-

| Category   | Criteria                                                                                                                                                                                              |
|------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| A-1        | Non-suburban stations with an annual passenger earnings of more than ` 60 crores.                                                                                                                     |
| A          | Non-suburban stations with an annual passenger earnings of ` 8 crores and upto ` 60 crores.                                                                                                           |
| B          | I. Non-suburban stations with an annual passenger earnings of ` 4 crores and upto ` 8 crores. II. Stations of tourist importance or an important junction station (to be decided by General Manager). |
| C          | All suburban stations.                                                                                                                                                                                |
| D          | Non-suburban stations with passenger earnings of ` 60 lakhs and upto ` 4 crores.                                                                                                                      |
| E          | Non-suburban stations with earnings less than ` 60 lakhs.                                                                                                                                             |
| F          | Halts                                                                                                                                                                                                 |

- (b) Minimum essential amenities are provided at  stations on Indian Railways as per norms.  However, shortfall in amenities occur due to upward revision in scale of amenities at various categories of stations. The Zone-wise details of stations having shortfall in MEAs as per norms is as under:

|   S.No | Railway         |   Total no. of Stations |   No. of Stations having shortfall as per norms |
|--------|-----------------|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
|      1 | Central Railway |                     475 |                                             149 |
|      2 | Eastern Railway |                     554 |                                             354 |

| 3   | East Central Railway       |   688 |   357 |
|-----|----------------------------|-------|-------|
| 4   | East Coast Railway         |   304 |    94 |
| 5   | Northern Railway           |   995 |   264 |
| 6   | North Central Railway      |   372 |   211 |
| 7   | North Eastern Railway      |   490 |   130 |
| 8   | Northeast Frontier Railway |   505 |     3 |
| 9   | North Western Railway      |   577 |   262 |
| 10  | Southern Railway           |   729 |   104 |
| 11  | South Central Railway      |   704 |    68 |
| 12  | South Eastern Railway      |   353 |    81 |
| 13  | South East Central Railway |   310 |    15 |
| 14  | South Western Railway      |   336 |    78 |
| 15  | Western Railway            |   792 |   206 |
| 16  | West Central Railway       |   288 |     0 |
|     | Total                      |  8472 |  2376 |

The shortfall mainly exists at 'D' (11%), 'E' (59.1%) and 'F' (14.2%) categories of stations  which  account  for  about  84%  of  total  stations  having  shortfall  in amenities.  These  stations  deal  with  relatively  lesser  volume  of  passenger traffic.

- (c) Selection of railway stations as ''Adarsh Stations'' is based on the identified need for upgradation of passenger amenities. The scale and type of amenities provided  at  Adarsh  station  is  based  on  the  norms  prescribed  for  different categories of stations under this scheme.
- (d)  There are seven categories of stations on Indian Railways based on annual passenger  earnings.  Amenities  are  provided  as  per  norms  based  on  the category of the station.
- (e) Ministry of Railways has also issued guidelines for provision of passenger amenities  at  stations  through  utilisation  of  funds  under  CSR,  MPLAD  etc  to supplement the efforts made by Railways to improve passenger amenities at railway stations.