NFR plans ₹334.72-cr MMTH at Jalpaiguri station

The Northeast Frontier Railway plans to upgrade the New Jalpaiguri (NJP) Railway station into a multi-modal transportation hub at an investment of ₹334.72 crore. Once operational, it will be one of the largest and the busiest railway stations, serving as a connecting base for the North-eastern states to the Indian mainland and will further boost various sectors of the local economy, including travel and tourism in North Bengal and in the neighbouring Sikkim. Chief Public Relations Officer, NF R, Sabyasachi De, informed that the project has a completion target of 2025. Once complete the station's capacity to handle passenger footfall will increase twofold from the current thirty-six thousand per day to over seventy thousand per day.

The station will have a large covered parking area, 24x7 power backup, drinking water, air-conditioned lobby, offices, hotels, and shops, and high speed escalators and lifts. A central air space concourse of 72m long and 82m wide will ensure minimum congestion and loading on platforms to avoid any mishaps, and segregation of arriving and departing passengers. An elevated road has been proposed for reaching the existing ground level to the proposed departure lobby at a height of more than 9m. A similar road has been proposed for the arrival lobby as well.