Gateways To The Future
To breathe life into the buildings that will form HSR stations, the design of each of the 12 stations on the MAHSR line will reflect the spirit of the city it is coming up in. This will bring about an instant connection with the local populace, and promote a sense of ownership of the high-speed system.
From an architectural point of view, it is simple to make a modern-looking structure. But, to establish a connect with the local environment, the idea was to pick some elements of the city that locals are proud of and then build the concept on those elements. The stations are conceived as a gateway to a modern way of living.
The HSR station buildings will be modern, with use of materials like translucent glass, but with some reflection of the city to make people relate to them. For instance, Surat is known as the diamond city, so the HSR station building has the diamond shape in the elevation and ceilings.
The Sabarmati station is inspired by the river Sabarmati, and the elevation has waves to represent water. The spikes of the Ashoka chakra will also be seen in the design. Ahmedabad architecture is famous for Syed Siddique's iconic jaali, which represents the tree of life. The jaali is being recreated in the facade of the Ahmedabad HSR station building.
The inside of the station area has an intuitive design, where passengers are guided towards the platform and all functions, such as security, ticketing, etc happen during the course of this movement.
A uniform style has been maintained at all the stations to ensure that passengers using the system get exactly the same feel at all stations.
All the stations will meet international standards in functionality and operations and will have soothing colours and all basic amenities like signages, seating arrangements in waiting areas, lounges, kiosks, etc. Effort has been made to keep the location of the stations inside the limits of the cities, and connected to other modes of transport like railways, city buses, Metro lines, and parking facilities, etc.
High-speed trains will see longer travel times so care has been taken to provide good restrooms, next to which will be nurseries for children. The stations will also have lockers to store baggage for those doing day trip to cities, which a high-speed train system will offer. The stations will also have business lounges for first class passengers.
The stations will have an inclusive design for Divyang (differently-abled) passengers. A wheelchair-friendly design, lowered ticketing counters with braille instructions, tiles on the floor for guidance, dedicated washrooms, braille buttons inside elevators are some of the features.