Delhi Sarai Rohilla
Indian Railway and Delhi Suburban Railway station
General information
Location	New Rohtak Road, New Delhi India
Coordinates	28°39′47″N 77°11′11″E / 28.66306°N 77.18639°E / 28.66306; 77.18639
Elevation	220.950 metres (724.90 ft)
Owned by	Indian Railways
Operated by	Indian Railways
Line(s)	Delhi–Fazilka line Delhi–Jaipur line Delhi Azadpur loop Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Delhi Shahdara line
Platforms	7
Tracks	12
Bus routes	Delhi, Garhi Harsaru, Rewari, Rohtak, Sonipat
Construction
Parking	Available
Other information
Status	Functional
Station code	DEE
Zone(s)	Northern Railway zone
Division(s)	Delhi
History
Opened	1873; 151 years ago (1873)
Rebuilt	2013; 11 years ago (2013)
Electrified	Yes
Location
Delhi Sarai Rohilla Location within Delhi

v t e Delhi–Rewari Line
Legend
km to north and east to Ghaziabad 4 Delhi Junction 0 Delhi Sarai Rohilla 1 Dayabasti north to Shakurbasti & Azadpur 3 Patel Nagar 4 Kirti Nagar south to Naraina & Delhi Safdarjung 10 Delhi Cantonment 13 Palam 20 Bijwasan Delhi Haryana border 27 Gurgaon 37 Garhi Harsaru Inland Container Depot 56 Pataudi 78 Rewari to west & south-west

Delhi Sarai Rohilla railway station (station code: DEE) is situated about 4 kilometres (2+1⁄2 mi) from old Delhi railway junction in India. It is managed by Delhi Division of Northern Railway zone. Many trains from Delhi to Haryana,Jammu and Kashmir,Punjab, Rajasthan,Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra stop at this station. More than twenty trains including Duronto and AC trains originate at this station.

Etymology

Sarai means an inn or resting place for travellers. The station is named after the medieval village it was located in. The village itself was named after a sarai, named after Ruhullah Khan, a noble in the Mughal court. Once it was a sarai on the busy road to Delhi and pilgrimage town of Ajmer. He was one of the three sons of Khalil Ullah Khan, the Governor of Delhi province during reign of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, and also a distant relative of Empress Mumtaz Mahal. Over time, this name has been corrupted to Rohilla after Rohillas who ruled a region called Rohilkhand around Bareilly and Rampur northeast of Delhi during the Mughal era.^[1]

History

Start

Delhi Sarai Rohilla Terminal railway station was established in 1872 when the metre-gauge railway line from Delhi to Jaipur and Ajmer was being laid. It was a small station just outside Delhi as Delhi was confined to walled city then. All the metre-gauge trains starting from (and terminating at) Delhi (station code DLI) to Rewari, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat passed through this station. The track from Delhi Junction to Sarai Rohilla Terminal was double. The single track from Sarai Rohilla to Rewari was doubled up to Rewari from where single tracks diverged in five directions.^{[citation needed]}

Gauge conversion

Conversion of metre gauge to 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge started in 1991. The Delhi–Rewari railway line had double metre-gauge tracks and one of the tracks was converted to broad gauge in December 1994 as a part of conversion of Ajmer–Delhi line.^[2] Within a few years, both the tracks from Sarai Rohilla to Delhi railway station were converted to broad gauge and all metre-gauge trains stopped operating from Delhi station. As a result of this, all the metre-gauge trains terminated and started from Sarai Rohilla which became a railway terminus.

By September 2006, the second metre-gauge track from Sarai Rohilla to Rewari was also converted to broad gauge and all metre-gauge trains stopped operating between Rewari and Sarai Rohilla (though the converted track was opened for public use only in October 2007).^[3][4]

Infrastructure

Delhi Sarai Rohilla Terminal railway station has been developed as a terminus. Many trains originating from Delhi city towards Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai now start from Sarai Rohilla railway station and end there. It has a ticket reservation centre, three washing lines for train rakes and five platforms. Two platforms of adjacent Vivekanandpuri railway halt are connected to Sarai Rohilla railway station by a common foot overbridge.

There are plans to redevelop the station as part of the Smart Cities Mission, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between the Ministry of Urban Development and Indian Railways in October 2016. As per the MoU, areas around the station will also be redeveloped and the redevelopment aims to achieve better passenger amenities, easy access, integrated public transport hubs, optimal utilization of land, etc.^[5]

Anand Vihar Terminal and Hazrat Nizamuddin Terminal are two more railway terminals in the city of Delhi from where many regional and long-distance trains originate.

Trains

Earlier all the trains from Sarai Rohilla to Delhi used to terminate at Delhi railway station as the metre-gauge tracks ended there. Now the tracks are broad gauge and therefore many trains from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat going north or east of Delhi pass through Sarai Rohilla and continue beyond Old Delhi station.

Connectivity

The nearest metro station is Shastri Nagar on Red Line, which is about 1 km from the railway station.