Rs200cr redevelopment plan for Nagpur station ready

NAGPUR: Central Railway general manager DK Sharma on Thursday said that with the Centre simplifying procedures and okaying longer lease tenure, the long wait for redevelopment of 138-year-old Nagpur railway station is over.


Sharma said the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd ( IRSDCL), ), a joint venture of Rail Development Authority & IRCON, is on the job and “we are hopeful the process to redevelop A1 grade station will start soon.

We are on the right track.”

Sharma said IRSDCL being the nodal agency will prepare the overall strategic plan and business plans for individual or a group of stations. What Sharma said was also confirmed by IRSDC officials at Delhi.

IRSDCL general manager Ashwani Kumar told TOI, “We have called a bidders’ meet at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) office on May 22 to showcase the Rs200 crore infrastructure plan for railway station prepared by a Nagpur-based architect. We have called request for quotation (RFQ) for which last date is May 30. However, this date is likely to be extended as bidders want more time.”

IRSDCL official informed the redevelopment has been planned in three stages. The first phase of developing infrastructure at the station will be mandatory for which a Rs200 crore master plan is ready. The second part will include maintenance of station for 8-10 years and third phase will have commercial development on railway land. The bidder will be allowed to exploit railway land commercially to generate revenue.

“As the redevelopment will be done with the help of urban local bodies, bidders will be allowed to exploit air space in and around the station. For this, the bidder will have to pay premium to the railways,” said Kumar.

IRSDCL plans to take up redevelopment of 50 stations in the country of which tendering process for 15 stations has started. “The project will help provide state-of-the-art amenities for passengers, generate additional revenues and will be overall at least cost neutral to railways over a basket of stations,” Sharma said.

Railway officials said cabinet approval was obtained on June 24, 2015 to redevelop ‘A1’ and ‘A’ category stations by zonal railways through cabinet approved procedures and for a lease period of 45 years. “However, insufficient interest was seen among prospective bidders. During various interactions with developers, investors and other stakeholders, various issues including multiple sub-leasing, simplified bid procedures etc were repeatedly raised,” they said.

Therefore, an improved and simpler programme design including these issues and under a specialized executing agency IRSDCL, incorporating suitable structural, process and parameters changes, has been adopted to revamp the stations.

“Redevelopment of railway stations across the country will have a multiplier effect on the economy with increased job creation and improved economic growth,” they said.