its not just speed and safety that are in the spotlight in the railway budget sanitation and worldclass passenger facilities and standards are also in the works in a few years travelling by train is likely to be a pleasant experience for passengers if eve rything goes as per the plan of the railway ministry they will be able to walk into a wellmaintained station connect to a wifi network to use their smartphones and order their favourite meals as they wait for trains escalators and lifts will covey them smoothly from one platform to the next while batteryoperated cars will drop senior citizens at the door of the coach the only hitch is all of these will come at a price as the railway minister has unveiled a grand plan the southern region may look forward to an improved travel experience as railways plans to rope in private investors corporates and charitable organisations to install amenities at stations and trains passengers may have to pay a nominal fee to use the facilities installed in the publicprivate partnership model the plan outlined in the first railway budget of the new union government presented by minister d v sadananda gowda proposes to install foot overbridges lifts escalators batteryoperated cars and reverse osmosis drinking water facilities under publicprivate partnerships at all major railway stations lack of cleanliness poses a hassle for travellers at central railway sta tion egmore railway station coim batore madurai and trichy though cleaning is outsourced at many of these stations many of the stations stink and people have to walk past garbage to reach their trains in a bid to attract investors railways is thinking about allowing the agencies that will install facilities like escalators lifts and foot overbridges to collect a small usage charge from passengers this is the only way to ensure that they will get returns on investment because foot overbridges and other such facilities will cost a lot of money to install the option of allowing advertisements alone will not be enough to recover the cost of the investment said a senior railway official the move to collect toll or a fee from passengers for such facilities has been under discussion in railway zones for a while the recommendation was also forwarded to the ministry it looks like the ministrys announcement of ppp model may hinge on this there is no other way to attract investors this is the future and we will have to switch over to paying for using amenities he added the ppp model for facilities at stations is not new to railways the model was there under sponsorship mode and firms who take up such work used to be allowed to display advertisements and generate revenue but this model was not a success not many people want to display advertisements on railway stations including suburban stations because it was not boosting sales of a product unlike in mumbai or delhi where the traveller and commuter profile is different he said