Malda, Feb. 11: The 1km-long Malda Station Road will be given a new look in the next one year.

The road that links Malda Town station to National Highway 34 will be made 80ft wide with a 5ft divider. Pavements of 5ft width will be constructed on both sides.

To be named after former railway minister A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, the road will be constructed by the Englishbazar Municipality for over Rs 1 crore. A statue of the late Congress leader will be erected at Rathbari.

The road is an important thoroughfare used by the VIPs to enter the town. It is also the shortest route to reach north Malda. “But the hawkers and pavement dwellers are occupying huge areas of the road creating traffic snarls everyday. So widening the road has become a necessity. Under the project, the hawkers will be rehabilitated to a shopping mall to be built on a plot of one-bigha of land of the civic body near the Rathbari police outpost,” said Narendranath Tiwari, the Congress chairman of the municipality.

The rest of the vacant space in the plot will be sold to traders who can afford to buy. The mall will have cloakroom, toilets, and other basic amenities for travellers. The train passengers and people from far-off places of the district can stay at a community hall, also to be the part of the mall.

“When Barkatda (Ghani Khan) was alive, he had given a proposal for widening the road. We have already started the work to fulfil his desire,” Tiwari said.

Babla Sarkar, the Trinamul vice-chairman of the municipality, said: “We want to give the road a look of Hill Cart Road in Siliguri. In the first phase, we will spend Rs 40 lakh.”

The vice-chairman said Rathbari in Malda is the Esplanade of Calcutta. A large number of people from across the district come here for various work everyday. They often get stuck and cannot return home at night. “We will build the community hall for them so that they spend a night or two there.”

The municipality has received Rs 10 lakh from the local area development fund of the Congress MP from Malda. He has assured the civic body more money for the project.

Sarkar said the civic body had received Rs 15 lakh from the North Bengal Development Council and another Rs 15 lakh from the Border Area Development Project.