Contracts awarded for two stations
Bids have been invited for redevelopment of Puducherry and Tirupati railway stations while contracts have been awarded for Gomtinagar and Charbagh (Lucknow) stations.
Minister of State of Railways, Rajen Gohain, updated parliament in a written reply on 19 Dec 2018 on the rail station redevelopment scheme which will be cost-neutral to the Ministry.
Station redevelopment is planned by leveraging commercial development of land & air space in and around stations, i.e. vacant railway land and air space not required by Railways for its immediate operational needs shall be leased out to interested parties for setting up commercial establishments.
The revenues realized from commercial development of stations should be sufficient to at least cover the entire cost of station redevelopment after meeting the full expenditure on real estate development and Maintenance obligations, i.e. station redevelopment project would be cost neutral to Railways.
The station redevelopment comes under an MoU signed between Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and National Building Construction Corporation Ltd on 30 July 2017.
Ten stations are listed for redevelopment — Tirupati, Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Nellore, Madgaon, Charbagh (Lucknow), Gomtinagar, Kota, Thane New, Ernakulam Jn. and Puducherry.
These stations are a part of the SMART City project launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. fiinews.com
