Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on February 26 lay the foundation stone of 550 Amrit Bharat stations to improve facilities at railway stations by developing rooftop plazas and city centres at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore.

The prime minister will also lay the foundation stone of nearly 1,500 road overbridges and underbridges across different states during a function that will be conducted virtually at over 2,000 railway stations, officials said on Wednesday. The prime minister will join the function via videoconferencing.

Prizes will also be given to about 50,000 school students who had participated in speech, essay and poetry writing competitions on the "2047 - Viksit Bharat ki Railway" theme, organised by the Indian Railways across 4,000 schools. Nearly four lakh students participated in different competitions and about 50,000 prizes will be awarded by divisional railway managers and senior railway officers during the function.

The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme was launched for the development of stations on Indian Railways. It involves the preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve amenities at the stations through improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, cleanliness, free WiFi, kiosks for local products through schemes such as 'One Station, One Product', better passenger information systems.

The scheme also involves building executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings and landscaping, keeping in view the necessity at each station. It envisages improvement of buildings, integrating the stations with both sides of cities, multimodal integration, amenities for persons with disabilities, provision for ballastless tracks, 'roof plazas' as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centres at the station in the long term.

The scheme envisages a gradual shift to sustainable and environment-friendly solutions, as per availability of funds and condition of existing assets. To ensure smooth access, it also proposes widening of roads, removal of unwanted structures, properly designed signages, dedicated pedestrian pathways, well-planned parking areas and improved lighting.

The scheme envisages high-level platforms (760-840 millimetres) at all categories of stations. According to the scheme, the length of the platforms shall generally be 600 metres. So far, 1,318 stations have been selected under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme based on proposals received from zonal railways and stations located in major cities and towns.