In a major fillip to the infrastructural development of railway stations across the country, the Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval for redevelopment of 400 railway stations in metros and major cities besides pilgrim centres and tourist spots. The proposal had been pending for long.
The Cabinet approved the redevelopment of the railway stations on ‘as is where is’ basis to accelerate the process of revamping them. Under this model, interested parties coming through open bids would develop the stations with their designs and business ideas while commercial development of real estate would be allowed by the Zonal Railways. Earlier moves to redevelop the stations and transforming them into world-class facilities had met “little success”.
The ‘as is where is’ model would entail a much simpler process for faster redevelopment, with more focus on vertical expansion. The model was floated by the Railways to redevelop a large number of stations as the Indian Stations Development Corporation could undertake redevelopment of only some identified stations in the country.
“The 75 ‘A-1’ and 332 ‘A’ category stations will be offered for redevelopment by inviting open bids from interested parties. These stations are to be developed by leveraging real estate development of land and air space in and around the stations. The model would also encourage innovative ideas from interested parties at no cost to the railways. These category of stations are generally located in metros, major cities, pilgrimage centres and important tourist destinations across the country,” said the official.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had earlier noted that the existing processes for redevelopment are time-consuming as there are several stages involved including ‘inception and pre-feasibility report’, appointment of architect, technical consultants, financial and legal consultants, in-principle approval of local authorities, request for qualification, shortlisting of bidders, and request for technical proposals.
“As the IRSDC is able to undertake redevelopment of only a few stations, and there is a need to redevelop a large number of stations, it has been proposed to redevelop stations through invitation of open bids from interested parties,” said a railway official.