E-Paper
Nine firms in race to redevelop 4 railways stations under PPP model
The redeveloped stations are proposed to be called ‘Railopolis’.
The railways has shortlisted nine companies for redeveloping four of its stations at Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar and Sabarmati as part of its plan of redeveloping railway stations under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Railways’ project implementation arm the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd. (IRSDC) had invited RFQs (Request for Qualification) in December 2019 to redevelop the four railway stations. The redeveloped stations are proposed to be called ‘Railopolis’.
It has shortlisted the following firms: G R Infraprojects, Kalpataru Power Transmission, GMR Business and Consultancy, Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments, Monte Carlo, JKB Infrastructure and Kalyan Toll Infrastructure, Cube Construction Engineering.
“On June 26, 2020 IRSDC opened the RFQ applications of these four railway stations and received overwhelming response from 32 developers and funds despite the current COVID19 scenario,” IRSDC said in a statement.
The total estimated cost for the redevelopment of the four stations is about Rs 1,300 crore. The total built-up area allowed for commercial development is 5.4 million square feet.
Among 29 shortlisted applicants, six qualified for Nagpur, eight for Gwalior, six qualified for Amritsar and nine for Sabarmati.
The stations will also be the first to have provisions for pre-determined user charges on passengers and visitors, as one of the main revenue stream for the concessionaire. The user development fees model will be used by the national transporter for the first time.
IRSCD will be leasing the land out for 60 years for commercial purposes and 99 years for residential.
This comes in the backdrop of railways’ plan of redeveloping 400 railways stations. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had announced its plan of redeveloping 400 railway stations during its first tenure. As per the plan, the cost of the station redevelopment project was to be met by leveraging commercial development of land and air space in and around the stations. The railway stations were taken up for redevelopment based on financial viability.
Apex policy think-tank Niti Aayog had, in October 2019, pulled up the ministry of railways for delayed implementation of the Centre’s plan. Niti Aayog had recommended an empowered group of top bureaucrats to develop 50 stations on priority basis.
The railway ministry earlier this month also began the formal process to allow a private company to run trains on 109 routes -- a process that aims to, for the first time, open up one of the government’s most prominent enterprises that has in recent decades been outpaced by the demands of a rapidly growing economy.
