Eastern Railways set to build shopping mall at Sealdah stn

Kolkata: In a move that will bring cheers to commuters the Eastern Railways is set to build a shopping mall at Sealdah station soon.

"The tender for the shopping mall has already been floated. The shopping mall will be set up on the concourse area between the main line and south division at Sealdah railway station," said a senior official of Eastern Railways.

The shopping mall will be set up on an approximately 3,000 square feet area, informed sources.

"The tendering process is expected to complete by mid-February this year. The construction of the infrastructure will be completed in the next six months. It is expected that the shopping mall would be completed by September 2020," said the official.

"We already have food products being sold at different IRCTC food outlets. The upcoming shopping mall will consist of mostly cloth shops, crockery shops and other non-consumer durable items. It (shopping mall) can be considered as a gift to the passengers coming to Kolkata for this year's Durga Puja from the outskirts," said out an Eastern Railways official.

The Sealdah station sees nearly 12 lakh footfalls on a normal day. However, during Durga Puja, the rush of passengers shots up to 15 lakh.

This apart, the Eastern Railways also runs Durga Puja special trains to cater to the rush of passengers.

Besides the Eastern Railways offers Executive Lounge services and A/C Dormitory for the passengers are also available at the station.

It might be mentioned that the executive lounge at Sealdah for long-distance passengers the first in Bengal — was thrown open by IRCTC in April 2019.

It has a capacity of accommodating around 50 people. The passengers can also use the free Wi-Fi facility inside and can also order food.