Railway minister visits New Delhi station to review progress of holding area construction

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited New Delhi railway station on Friday to review the progress of holding area construction and other measures of crowd management before the beginning of festive seasons.

The railway ministry had ordered the construction of a permanent holding area at five railway stations in the country after 18 passengers were killed in a stampede at New Delhi station on February 15, 2025. The other four stations are Anand Vihar, Ghaziabad, Varanasi and Ayodhya.

Vaishnaw, while reviewing the work, told reporters that good progress has been made in the construction of the holding area.

“The holding area will control and maintain the sudden rush of crowds which often comes at the railway station,” Vaishnaw said.

He added that along with this construction, the holding area will be integrated with the existing Metro station at New Delhi railway station, so that around 3000 people, who travel in the Metro, come to the holding area first instead of directly going on to the railway station.

“All tickets will be sold in the holding area once it is ready in about a month or so. This will help in crowd management,” Vaishnaw said.

When asked about the redevelopment work at New Delhi station, he said, "The work is progressing well and all the permissions have been secured. The design work is almost complete, the tender has been finalised and the work will start soon." RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) Limited designed the permanent holding area at these five stations and the railway ministry had said earlier that once the model is ready, it will be expanded to 60 high-density footfall railway stations in the country.

The ministry has also decided to put in place access control measures at New Delhi station, so that all unauthorised access points will be closed and only passengers with confirmed tickets can enter the platform. PTI JP JP MNK MNK