Patna: Patna Junction is set to get facilities on a par with airports, thanks to Indian Railways' recent tweak in categorisation of stations that catapulted the junction to the list of 20 best stations in the country.

The categorisation used to be done every five years based on passenger earnings. The new method of categorisation includes footfall as well.

"Earlier, stations were divided into six categories A1, A, B, C, D and E on the basis of earnings of that particular station which has now been clubbed into three groups," East Central Railway (ECR) chief public relations officer Rajesh Kumar explained .

The three groups are non-suburban, suburban, and halt group stations. Those have been further put in grades ranging from 1 to 6. In the non-suburban group, there are six categories of stations.

For example, in the non suburban 1 category, the yearly earnings should be more than Rs 500 crore and passenger footfall over 20 million. In non-suburban 2, the earning should be between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore and footfall between 10 million and 20 million. And in the non-suburban 3 category earnings should be between Rs 20 crore and Rs 100 crore and footfall between 5 million and 10 million.

There are 8,613 railway stations in India. Asked why they are categorised, Rajesh said railway minister Piyush Goyal took the decision after the stampede on the foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai.

"A tragedy took place there in which 29 people died. An inquiry found lack of adequate passenger services. Though the footfall was high, the station earnings were not commensurate as per the classification. The Railway Board took a policy decision and ruled that while classifying the railway station footfall would be taken into account and passenger amenities would be upgraded. It is a proud moment for ECR that Patna has entered the list of top 20 railway stations," Rajesh said.

Other stations on the list include Bengalore, Chennai and Delhi.