Railways to shortlist private players for station redevelopment project

At least 32 companies have shown interest in the redevelopment of four railway stations — Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar and Sabarmati — on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

New Delhi: At least 32 companies have shown interest in the redevelopment of four Railway Stations, including Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar and Sabarmati, under the Public-Private Partnership Model, for which Railways is expected to sought all request for qualifications till July first week.

According to reports, the major players who are keen to involve in the project are JKB, GMR, ISQ Capital, Kalpataru, FairFax/Anchorage, Monte Carlo, GR Infrastructure, Kalyan Toll and Cube Construction.

The Indian Railway Station Development Corporation Ltd (IRSDC), opened the Request for qualification applications of these four railway stations on Friday.

Later, Railway Board Chairman, Vinod Kumar Yadav told the reporters that all the requests for qualification would be sought till the first week of July.

In a statement, IRSDC said that it has received "overwhelming" response from developers and fund houses despite the current COVID-19 crisis. Out of the 32 applicants, nine applications have been received for Sabarmati station (Ahmedabad).

Read:All regular train services cancelled till Aug 12: Railways

The total indicator cost for redevelopment of the four stations is about 1300 crore and the total build up area allowed for commercial development is 54 lakh square feet.

"No land use change and prior environmental clearance is required for these projects as these are Railway Projects under Railway Act 1989," said IRSDC in a statement.

It further added, "These four projects all distinction of being the first railway projects to have in principle approval of Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) formed by Government of India for PPP projects."

These four stations are also the first ones to have provision of pre-determined user charges on passengers and visitors as one of the main revenue stream for concessionaire of the redeveloped stations.