Ashwini Vaishnaw Clears Plan for 76 Passenger Holding Areas Nationwide

04 Nov 2025 CW Team

Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has approved a comprehensive plan to develop 76 passenger holding areas at major railway stations across India. The initiative follows the successful implementation of the holding area at New Delhi Railway Station, which has significantly improved passenger management during peak travel periods.

The proposed holding areas will feature a modular design, customized to suit local conditions at each station. Vaishnaw has instructed that all facilities be completed ahead of the 2026 festival season, ensuring enhanced passenger convenience and better crowd management nationwide.

The New Delhi Railway Station, which served as the model for this initiative, effectively managed the Diwali and Chhath travel rush through its newly constructed Yatri Suvidha Kendra (Permanent Holding Area). Completed within just four months, the facility can accommodate up to 7,000 passengers at a time, offering improved pre-boarding comfort and seamless passenger flow.

The holding area is divided into three functional zones — Ticketing, Post-Ticketing, and Pre-Ticketing — designed to streamline movement and reduce congestion. It is also equipped with 150 toilets each for men and women, ticket counters, automatic ticket vending machines, and free RO drinking water facilities.

Building on this success, the new holding areas across the country aim to enhance the passenger experience, improve station efficiency, and support the Indian Railways’ vision of safe, comfortable, and people-centric infrastructure development.

News source: PIB

Building Material

27 Nov 2025

Shalimar Paints Launches New Durable Luxury Interior and Exterior Range

Shalimar Paints has introduced three additions to its portfolio: Hero Insignia Luxury Interior Emulsion, Superlac PU Gloss Enamel and Hero Weather Guard 12 Luxury Exterior Emulsion. The new range is designed to combine finish, durability and environmental responsibility for modern residential spaces.Hero Insignia is a water-based luxury interior emulsion formulated with hybrid binder technology, providing a silky finish, stain resistance and protection from scuff marks. It offers more than 2,000 colour options, a 10-year promise and zero VOC levels, and can be applied on plaster, concrete and ..

Trimble Promotes Harsh Pareek as VP Direct Sales for APAC

Trimble has promoted Harsh Pareek to Vice President, Direct Sales, Asia-Pacific for its Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) division. Mr Pareek joined the company in 2017 and has more than 27 years of industry experience. He most recently served as Regional Sales Director for India for over eight years, during which he played a major role in accelerating Trimble’s growth and expanding its footprint across the Indian Subcontinent.Expressing his focus for the new role, Mr Pareek said that the AECO sector in Asia-Pacific is entering a phase driven by technology, sustai..

Rajasthan Moves Mining Processes Fully Online From 15 December

The Rajasthan government will make all mining-related processes entirely paperless from 15 December, a senior official said. The Mines, Geology and Petroleum Department will halt all offline work across its mining modules, requiring officials to operate exclusively through online systems. Principal Secretary (Mines) T Ravikant said compliance monitoring will begin on 1 December while addressing an orientation workshop for officials from the Jaipur, Bharatpur, Ajmer, Kota and Bikaner zones. Ravikant explained that the department has developed two mobile applications and fourteen online modules..