Railway station at Kumerdi, Indore

Abstract

Indian Railways owns and manages one of the largest Railway network of the world with over 64,000 Route Kilometers and 7,000 stations. Operations of Indian Railways are overseen by Ministry of Railways. Indian Railways carries more than 17.5 million passengers every day and some of the major stations handle 100- 200 million passengers per annum. Most of the Railway Stations have been built over 100 years ago, and have a limited and aging infrastructure that handles an ever increasing number of passengers. The Railway Stations are also located in the middle of the cities and offer enormous potential for redevelopment and commercial expansion. New passenger terminals are also being developed in cities where existing terminals cannot meet the further demand. The Ministry of Railways has decided to use world class guidelines for construction of new stations and redevelopment of old stations, so that the stations can be a world class icon to boost up the commercial potential of the surrounding regions of the central areas of the city. As stations is among the few building in the city which work as a Gateway through the city and creates an element memory over a period of time. These building last for around a century, which will be seen by generations of a family. This report is based on the design thesis of a Railway Station proposed by Indore Development Authority for future concerns in Indore located at a village named Kumerdi. This station will be among the station which are to be constructed because previous station of Indore will not be able to handle future railway traffic alone. As a result the main potential of the Super corridor that has been proposed near the station site must serve enough passenger traffic for this station in nearby future so that it can make up a good transportation plan. The New stations that are being developed do not possess the specific effect of serving the people but the main objective is to serve the economic factor alone by providing basic number of amenities, but this thesis will focus on the flexibility of a station regarding to passenger circulation as well as the usage of spaces in a different way so that passengers can settle for a while in un-paid regions of station. Basically the station must be comfortable enough for all types of activities that are performed by passengers in Indian Context.