Long-pending New Delhi Railway Station revamp yet to begin

The revised plan includes upgrading the station premises, its vicinity along with parking and traffic management

Even as Saturday’s stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station again highlighted the dire need to upgrade the infrastructure and capacity of the critical railway station, the redevelopment plan, which has been in the works for almost 15 years and has undergone at least five revisions, is yet to even kick off.

Crowds of passengers seen at the New Delhi Railway Station a day after the stampede. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The latest progress on the project took place in September last year when the Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) invited bids for the redevelopment of New Delhi Railway Station at an estimated cost of ₹2,469 crores. Officials familiar with the project said a contractor has since been selected, and a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) issued, but work is yet to begin.

Union railways minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said, “Tender for the NDLS redevelopment has been awarded and work towards it is progressing as per the plan. Since redevelopment project of a station as huge as NDLS involves many aspects like safety, work will be done as planned.”

The revised plan includes upgrading the station premises, its vicinity, upgrading the multimodal integration at the station, along with parking and traffic management via new flyovers to ensure better accessibility to the station.

Officials familiar with the matter said multiple attempts to find a bidder had failed due to the project’s scale and complexity, making it difficult for a single contractor to execute under the given permitted conditions.

The plan has now been revised yet agin to make it more financially viable and bring down the total cost of the project, which was earlier estimated to be around ₹15,000 crore. The plan has been divided into phases and some of the features and the structural plan of the building has also been revised.

“This is a brownfield project and will be executed while the station remains operational as per the proposed construction scheme. This will require execution of the work in phases and some works will essentially be required to be executed during traffic block. The first phase will comprise mainly development of railway station’s operational areas and related facilities and infrastructure and air space, whereas the second phase will be mainly commercial development of surrounding land area,” said an official aware of the matter.

The official added that the redevelopment plan envisions the station as an integrated Multi Modal Transit Hub (MMTH) with dedicated access roads connecting rail, metro, bus and other modes of transport to improve connectivity.

Officials added that the main components of the project include construction of two linear station buildings on Paharganj and Ajmeri gate side, air-concourse having arrival and departure plazas, waiting area, vertical circulation elements such as lifts and escalators, office spaces, hospitality, recreation and retail facilities along with residential housing for railways operational staff, officials added.

The transportation plan includes elevated and on ground road network to provide connectivity to station and to decongest the roads, platform works, parcel area and two parcel tunnels for smooth handling of parcel, parking and circulation facilities with access control system throughout the station.

With inputs from Neha LM Tripathi