Giving a fillip to the passenger and freight logistics of the country, the Centre has announced developing Intermodal Stations (IMS) at 15 cities. IMS projects will be implemented through special purpose vehicle between Ministries of Road, Railways and the concerned State Governments.
"Development of inter-modal stations will also give a boost to commercial development and economic activity in cities, which can significantly alter the socio-economic profile of the development area," said a senior Road Transport Ministry official.
Intermodal Stations are terminal infrastructure which integrate various transportation modes like rail, road, mass rapid transit system, bus rapid transit, inland waterways, auto-rickshaws, taxis and private vehicles etc, so that people can move from one mode to another seamlessly, with minimum use of automobiles.
"Fifteen cities across the country have been prioritised for development of IMS of which Nagpur and Varanasi have been selected as pilot projects. In most cities today, transport hubs like bus terminals, railway stations and others are located far from each other, so inter-modal transfers create pressure on the already congested roads. By bringing the different transport modes at one point, IMS will reduce congestion on roads and also vehicular pollution," said a senior Road Transport Ministry official.
IMS will also aid in city decongestion by encouraging the use of public transportation and by effectively using ring roads and National Highways for entry and evacuation of inter-city bus traffic. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has conducted detailed pre-feasibility studies for setting up IMS at Nagpur and Varanasi and the development of DPRs for this is in final stages of completion.
The officials said the Intermodal Stations are being planned in an integrated manner along with road network development through new connecting roads, bridges, flyovers etc. "The stations will cater to passenger volumes for the next 30 years and will have world-class amenities like FOBs with travellators, subways, common waiting rooms, clean toilets and restrooms, integrated public information systems, modern fire-fighting and emergency response services, convenience stores, lifts and escalators, adequate circulation space and commercial establishments," said the official.
A study done by Road Ministry says that there are multiple benefits in developing inter-modal stations over the standalone terminals. While aggregated footfall at Inter-modal stations witness higher footfall than disaggregated transport terminals, there would be an improved passenger experience with better facilities managed due to collaboration of multiple entities.
"Commercial development is driven by aggregated footfalls. In addition, passengers do not need to spend time and money to transit between terminals. Shared infrastructure like FOBs, waiting rooms, concourses, public conveniences leads to reduced investment and land requirement. This lowers the investment requirements while increasing the overall synergies in the system," said another official from Railway Ministry working on the project.
The implementation and operation of the IMS will be done by a SPV which will provide paid up capital or land as part of their equity contribution to the SPV. MoRTH will fund the construction of the terminal infrastructure including railway infrastructure, ISBT, common areas (concourse, waiting rooms, transport retail), parking and other station facilities. Indian Railways / State Government will provide the land for construction of the IMS.
For the pilot project, the satellite railways stations at Ajni in Nagpur and Kashi in Varanasi have been selected for development of IMS. Detailed master planning is being finalized along with road augmentation plans and required modal integrations. Stakeholder consultations are being conducted across key agencies and local administrations for both Nagpur and Varanasi.
To be built over 75 acres, the Nagpur IMS is likely to see three lakh footfall on an average daily till year 2050 while the Varanasi IMS to be developed over 30 acres is expected to see 1,50,000 footfall per day by 2050 wnd this would be connected ay all modes of transportation- rail, road, metro and waterways.