25 more stations being identified for the ambitious plan.

Ten railway stations have been identified to roll out redevelopment of stations on self-financing basis through land monetization in synergy with the Smart City Mission of the Ministry of Urban Development. Public-Private-Participation (PPP) mode to drive redevelopment plan.

The process is underway to identify another 25 stations for redevelopment under the same programme.

The stations are Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Lucknow, Gomtinagar, Kota, Tirupati, Nellore, Ernakulam, Puducherry, Madgaon and Thane New Stations.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and the state-owned National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 30 June 2017.

NBCC managing director A.K. Mittal said at least five stations would be redeveloped by 2019.

A Special Purpose Vehicle will be formed at the national level as a Joint Venture between RLDA and NBCC on 50:50 share-holding basis.

The SPV in turn will enter into City Support Agreements with respective cities.

The redevelopment of stations and commercial development on Railway land will be done in alignment with the Smart City Plans of respective cities.

RLDA will lease out the land to the SPV at a nominal token cost for development for a fixed lease period of up to 45 years and NBCC will execute the project work on behalf of the SPV as Project Management Consultant (PMC).

Earnings from the commercial development of land parcels at stations will be utilized to redevelop the stations for creating better passenger amenities and necessary infrastructure and the surplus earnings will go to RLDA which would in turn would be remitted to Zonal railways.

Project completion period will be three years from the date of availability of encumbrances-free site or award of works to construction agency, whichever is later.

Non-fare revenues generated from the Railway station except that from Railway Display Network will be passed on to SPV to meet expenditure on redeveloped stations.

NBCC will incur an initial investment of up to 5% of project cost and will charge an interest at the rate not exceeding 12% per year.

NBCC will also charge 4% of project cost as PMC charges, 3% of cost for preparation of Detailed Project Reports and 2% of lease revenue for marketing and other services.

Entire revenue from leased built up spaces will be deposited in an ESCROW account of the SPV which is to be managed by a Committee to be formed.

RLDA will appoint the Chairman of the SPV while NBCC will select the Chief Executive Officer.

Indian Railways has taken up this ambitious program of station redevelopment in a big way and have adopted multi-pronged strategy to accomplish this mammoth task, said Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways.

Earlier in October 2016, the MoU was entered into between Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Urban Development for mutual cooperation between the two Ministries for integrated planning of redevelopment of railway stations in the cities included in the ‘SMART Cities’ and AMRUT schemes.

The proposal was to plan the redevelopment of stations in partnership with the smart city SPVs and Urban Local Bodies so that the planning and redevelopment of the station and the city areas near the station is done in an integrated manner. fii-news.com