New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) The construction work for redevelopment of Agra Division’s two railway stations under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is of substandard quality, Babulal Chaudhary, a BJP MLA from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh, has alleged in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
When asked, railway officials from the Agra Division said that it doesn’t deal with the said scheme. There was no immediate response from the Railway Ministry to Chaudhary’s allegations.
The letter dated May 24, 2025, said that about Rs 20 crore were allotted to redevelop two stations, Fatehpur Sikri and Achhnera. However, the ongoing construction work fails to meet the prescribed standards outlined for the scheme, the MLA claimed in the letter.
The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme has been floated by the Railway Ministry to improve passenger amenities at over 1,300 stations across the country. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 103 such stations where passenger facilities were enhanced under the said scheme.
Chaudhary claimed that the ongoing work is more of a formality than a genuine commitment to quality and officials are more focused on “earning commissions” from the project rather than having concerns for creating passenger amenities.
“It is maligning the reputation of Agra Rail Division,” the letter said.
Besides, Chaudhary also flagged the blatant encroachment of railway land by influential persons in collusion with the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), a charge strongly rebutted by the officials.
“The land encroachment is a decade-old issue under litigation. The lower court order went in favour of land occupiers. Our appeal is pending before the High Court and the DRM or any other officer of the Division has no role to play in this. It is a baseless allegation,” an official from the Division said.
He added, “So far as substandard construction work of stations is concerned, the DRM cannot be blamed for this because the Amrit Bharat Station Redevelopment Scheme comes directly under the Chief Administrative Officer (Construction/Road Safety Projects).” Chaudhary, in his letter, has urged the prime minister to issue an order to remove the DRM, clear the encroachment, construct boundary walls around railway land to prevent any future encroachment and investigate the station redevelopment work to punish the culprits.
“I have written this letter and sent their copies to the Railway Minister as well as General Manager of the North Central Railway under which the Agra Division comes,” Chaudhary told PTI. PTI JP KVK KVK
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