In her July 3 Rail Budget speech, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the upgrade of 375 stations to “adarsh” (model) status with improved passenger amenities. Of the 358 stations that the Ministry has now identified, 205—57 per cent—are located in Banerjee’s home state West Bengal.

According to an order this week, Eastern Railways (ER) has been allocated a lion’s share of 174 stations, of which 170 fall in West Bengal.

In South Eastern Railways, 25 of the 28 selected stations are located in West Bengal. Similarly, in Northeast Frontier Railways, 10 of the 11 selected stations happen to be in West Bengal. Singur, the epicentre of her agitation, also figures in the list of stations earmarked in ER.

While the three zonal railways touching Bengal have got 213 stations selected amongst themselves, other major zonal railways like Central, Southern, Western and Northern Railways have got just 93 earmarked for development works.

Interestingly, only 15 stations have been chosen from two zonal railways touching former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s home state Bihar—the East Central Railway (nine stations) and the North Eastern Railway (six stations).

Banerjee had announced that the adarsh stations will have “basic facilities such as drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services, waiting rooms and dormitories especially for lady passengers, better signage”.

In its order, dated September 17, the Railways Ministry has directed the general managers of all the zonal railways to take “immediate action to programme these works under their powers and try to complete most of the works within a year’s time”.