In order to transform
the face of the Indian Railways, Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu
launched the first Phase
of the World’s Largest Station Redevelopment Program comprising 23 major
Railway Stations on Indian Railways network. Minister of State for Social
Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar was present to grace the
occasion. Chairman, Railway
Board, Shri A.K. Mital, Member Engineering, Railway Board,
Aditya Kumar Mittal, Member Traffic, Railway Board, Shri Mohd. Jamshed and
other Board Members and other distinguished guests were present to grace the
occasion.
Speaking on the
occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that the
Railways have certain advantages out of which one is holding of land on a large
scale. He said that Railway Stations is a place where lots of people wait to
board a train and thus Railway Station can be developed into an iconic
property. He said that the properties of the Railways have a unique
characteristic. He stated that the Ministry of Urban Development is
collaborating with the Ministry of Railways to develop smart stations because smart
stations are a pre-requisite for becoming a smart city. He further said that
the project of re-developing 400 A1 and A Category Stations in the country is
the biggest non-fare revenue generating programme which will be done on PPP
model through a fair bidding system conducted by the respective Zonal Railways.
He said that in the first phase, 23 stations will be bid out and redeveloped
to the fullest use where so many facilities can be enjoyed by the passengers at
one place. He also directed all the General Managers/DRM through video
conferencing to collaborate with the Station Government for re-development of
Stations.
Welcoming the
Minister of Railways and other delegates, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K.
Mital said that our effort for last 10 years will see a culmination as we
launch the first lot of stations for redevelopment through public-private
partnership. These stations have been selected for this phase after detailed
feasibility studies carried out by our Strategic Advisors, The Boston
Consulting Group. He said that Railways mission is to redevelop railway
stations using the surplus revenue that will be generated from commercial
development of spare railway land.
BACKGROUND:
The 400 stations to be redeveloped will
provide amenities and services to the passengers in line with best in class
railway stations. The stations will be redeveloped through
public-private-partnership (PPP) model without straining Railways’ finances.
In the first phase, 23 stations will be bid
out some of which include Chennai Central, Ranchi, Udaipur City, Indore,
Yesvantpur, Bangalore Cantt., Visakhapatnam, Howrah, Kamakhya, Faridabad, Jammu
Tawi, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Kozhikode and Bhopal. Railways will provide
approximately 140 acres of encroachment free land at these stations to the
developers on a 45 year lease. Indian Railways has also appointed nodal
officers in each zone to ensure smooth interactions with the developers. The
phase is expected to be of approximately ₹ 6000 -9,000 Crore in size.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is the strategic advisor for this program and
based on the commercial assessment conducted by them and several rounds of
discussions held with the developers and zonal railways, Indian Railways team
is confident that the round will generate sufficient market interest.
The redeveloped stations will improve
passenger experience by providing amenities like digital signage, escalators /
elevators, self ticketing counters, executive lounges, luggage screening
machines, walkways, holding areas for passengers, grand and distinctive roofing
and flooring, free and paid Wi-Fi etc. The program will benefit more than 100
cities and 16 million passengers per day across the country. Moreover, the
commercial development undertaken near the stations will become nerve centers
of the city and provide quality retail, commercial and hospitality development.
Railway Board has devised an innovative plan
to provide these amenities through PPP model by leveraging the real estate
available at the railway stations. With an overall size of 1 lakh crore, the
program is one of the largest PPP program undertaken in the country. The
program will provide approximately 2,200 acres of prime land to the private developers
across top 100 cities of the country. A committee of eminent experts would be
formulated to provide suggestions to Zonal Railways on proposals submitted by
bidders in addition to the technical and financial committee recommendations.
Commercial potential of this vacant Railway land at/near stations will be
leveraged to develop world class stations with no additional funding required
from the Railways. The program is expected to generate a surplus in excess of
₹ 10,000 Crore for the Indian Railways which can be invested in other
modernization projects. Select high potential stations will be made as iconic
stations and will be developed as per highest global standards and design
norms.
Some
of the Railway Stations in the Phase 1 of Station Redevelopment Programme
To maximize commercial potential of the
public assets, Indian Railways plans to bid out the projects through a
transparent and competitive method. Taking cue from global best practices,
Indian Railways has adopted the so called “modified Swiss challenge”
methodology for the bidding process.
Indian Railways has reached out to the
private developers and investors through road shows in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
and Abu Dhabi to gauge market interest and receive feedback on the bidding
process. Railway Board has also engaged with the zonal railways through
multiple workshops to accurately assess land availability.
The launch event for the program, conducted
at Rail Bhavan and several zonal railway offices was attended by more than 100
developers and other potential bidders who expressed high level of interest in
bidding for these stations.
After the first phase, 100+ stations are
expected to be launched in Phase 2 and the remaining A1 and A stations will be
launched in Phase 3 of this program.
******
MKV/DK
