Vizag Railway Station to get upgraded to NSG-1 status due to high earnings

The Central Railway Board has proposed upgrading Visakhapatnam Railway Station from its current Non-suburban (NSG-2) status to the NSG-1 category, due to its high earnings. NSG-1 stations are Non-Suburban Group-1 stations that generate more than Rs 500 crore annually or handle over 20 million passengers per year. At Visakhapatnam Railway Station, a total of 13,343,246 passengers originated, including 6,671,985 reserved passengers and 6,671,261 unreserved passengers in 2023-24.

The station’s total earnings from these passengers amounted to Rs 5,641.66 crore, with Rs 678.81 crore from reserved passengers and Rs 4,962.85 crore from unreserved ones. In fact, the station holds the number one position among the top 20 revenue-generating railway stations in the East Coast Railway zone.

Vijayawada Railway Station has also been recommended for NSG-1 status, with a total of 16,839,464 originating passengers and earnings of Rs 5,282.16 crore.

NSG-1 stations typically feature modern amenities and infrastructure to handle large volumes of passengers and commercial activities. If Visakhapatnam Station attains the NSG-1 status, it is possible that it may undergo modernization, which is much needed to address the growing demands of passengers. Despite recording the highest footfalls and steadily increasing revenue, the current facilities are insufficient.

In recent news, a weekly special train between Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru, launched by the Waltair Division of the East Coast Railway (ECoR), has been a great success. The inaugural run of the Visakhapatnam-SMVB-Visakhapatnam train (08543/44) on August 18 saw overwhelming patronage.

Read also: Visakhapatnam-Durg Vande Bharat likely to be flagged off soon

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