On May 22, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated 103 revamped railway stations to the nation. These stations are located in 86 districts across 18 states and union territories, and form part of the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS).

This undoubtedly marks a major milestone in Indian Railways’ quest to modernise its stations, with the immediate goal of transforming over 1,300 stations countrywide into new-age, customer-friendly transport hubs.

However, these are just initial steps. I will explain this further later. Suffice it to say at this juncture that there is still a long way to go. Why do I say so? Here is a tale of two experiences.

Two months ago, on March 9, I took my first train journey in a decade. I travelled aboard the made-in-India Vande Bharat Express from Jaipur Junction Station to Delhi Cantt station.

True to its name, the Vande Bharat journey was a truly exceptional, world-class experience.

However, in stark contrast to the marvellous journey on the Vande Bharat Express, my experience entering and exiting Jaipur and Delhi Cantt stations respectively was harrowing. Here’s what happened:

Ingress at Jaipur Junction Station: As the car driven by my host, a former senior railway official, approached Jaipur station, we encountered significant traffic chaos. This was due to a combination of factors, including disorganised traffic flow and a lack of designated drop-off points for cabs and private vehicles. Upon entering the station, navigating the narrow, congested platform to my coach was so tortuous that I almost missed boarding the train.

Egress at Delhi Cantt station: With its four platforms and four tracks, Delhi Cantt station primarily caters to traffic from or going to the important tourist states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The egress experience at this notoriously senior-citizen-unfriendly station warrants further explanation. I found it suffocating to negotiate the long queue of passengers, dragging my two pieces of luggage for what felt like a kilometre, finally reaching the raucous auto-rickshaw drivers. With the nearest metro station (Cantt Metro Station) 4 km away and app-based taxis (Ola/Uber) unavailable, I had no choice but to pay four times the normal fare to reach my destination, the India International Centre.

What holds true for Delhi Cantt is even truer for New Delhi railway station, one of the biggest and busiest in the country, whose modernisation has been stalled for the last 25 years. The situation is largely the same at other NCR stations, including Old Delhi.

This article addresses the sorry state of railway stations across Bharat, which are in dire need of upgradation, revamping, and modernisation. Most of these stations, constructed before India’s independence, were not designed to handle even the current level of rail traffic and are grossly inadequate for future demand.

Therefore, this article proposes a pathway for the planned and modular modernisation of stations, ensuring they are future-ready to meet the demands of a developed rail network in a developed Bharat by 2047.

Following its reorganisation in 1950-51, Indian Railways, with a route length of 53,596 kilometres and around 7,500 stations, carried 1.2 billion originating passengers on 3,327 mail/express trains and 4,610 passenger trains daily. In contrast, in 2024-25, the Indian Railways network, spanning 70,000 route kilometres and 8,500 stations, carried 7.15 billion passengers on over 13,000 passenger trains. These included 4,111 mail and express trains, 3,313 passenger trains, and 5,774 suburban trains. Furthermore, a significant number of special trains operated during the summer vacation period.

On May 20, a PIB news release titled “Amrit Bharat Station Scheme: A New Era for Indian Rail Infrastructure" aptly summarised the importance of railway stations to the heart of Bharat and how these stations have remained largely unchanged, even decayed, over decades:

“Railway stations have long been the heartbeats of Indian towns and cities, bustling with stories, memories and movement. While they........

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