Railway station where Modi sold tea to get Rs 80 million facelift

AHMEDABAD: The Indian government has decided to give Vadnagar railway station, almost 95 km from Ahmedabad, a Rs 8 crore facelift. This is the same railway stand where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would sell tea as a boy at his father’s tea stall.

The announcement to this effect was recently made by Union minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha.

Giving details about the facelift project, divisional railway manager Dinesh Kumar said that the entire project of developing Vadnagar and adjoining places in Mehsana district will cost over Rs100 crore.

N Srivastava, commissioner of tourism and managing director, Gujarat tourism, said that the redeveloped Vadnagar station will reflect the ancient town’s history from 150 AD to the present. The station will be part of the Patan-Modhera-Vadnagar heritage circuit.

Srivastava said that the Vadnagar station was currently a small station with a tin shade. Hence it needed urgent attention looking at the heritage value of Vadnagar town, Srivastava said. Officials from Gujarat tourism said that in future there is a possibility that the Vadnagar station may get additional connectivity once the broad gauge was completed.

“An additional line can be constructed from Vadnagar which would connect the town to Idar and then join up with the Ahmedabad-Udaipur broad guage,” an official said.

“Since the entire heritage circuit was being handled by Gujarat tourism, we have handed over the railway station to the tourism department,” Kumar said. “They will prepare the design and get it approved by the railways before implementing it.”

Out of the Rs 100 crore that the facelift will cost, Rs 8 crore will be spent on the railway station by the state tourism department.