Aurangabad: The long-pending redevelopment of Aurangabad railway station will be initiated within one month, said Vinod Kumar Yadav, the general manager of the South Central Railway (SCR).Yadav, who is on an official tour to Aurangabad, told media persons on Wednesday that different work related to the redevelopment will have a collective financial outlay of Rs10 crore. “The redevelopment work of Aurangabad railway station will be accomplished within a period of the next one year,” he said.TOI on December 5 had carried a report about how the station redevelopment plan was not discussed during a recent crucial meeting chaired by Yadav.The inauguration of the second phase of the redevelopment of Aurangabad station was inaugurated way back in July 2015, but all that has remained on paper for more than three years. The work, to be carried out with help from the Ministry of Tourism, involves setting up executive lounges according to the international standard, improvement in the circulating area for proper traffic management and to provide adequate parking space, the renovation of modern pay-and-use toilets, the improvement of waiting rooms and retiring rooms and adding furniture to them as well as a facelift to the booking and enquiry offices. Some of the other major work includes setting up cloak-room facilities with individual lockers and facilitating a passenger guidance system.Touching upon some other major demands, Yadav also said that extension plans of the Rajya Rani Superfast Express, (22101/22102) were being mooted. The train, whose extension is being sought with an aim of improving the rail connectivity of Aurangabad with Mumbai, continues to have to run on an old route between Mumbai-Manmad-Mumbai on weekdays. Incidentally, during his official visit to Aurangabad last year, Yadav had promised the desired extension for the train.Railway activist Raj Somani said that the SCR general manager should fulfil the promises he makes instead of offering lip-service every time he comes to the city. “We are tired of his promises now and seek action. The extension for the Rajya Rani Superfast Express could not materialize despite a promise from Yadav in the past several months and the redevelopment work should not meet the same fate,” he said.Echoing similar views, railway activist Gautam Nahata said that the redevelopment work must get initiated before the end of the current fiscal. “If the general manager is saying that a budget worth Rs10 crore will be sanctioned for the work, it should not happen that the money allocated lapses due to the non-utilization of funds during the current financial year,” he said.Among other demands, Yadav said that the pending track doubling and the rail electrification work in the Nanded division will be accomplished soon.

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