Indian Railways (IR) embarked on a mega transformation drive to develop world-class railway station infrastructure by launching the Station Redevelopment Programme in 2015.
In October 2018, the cabinet approved the plan of making the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that is a joint venture of the Rail Land Development Authority and IRCON Limited in 2012, the nodal agency for station redevelopment. Thus, the ISRDC has the responsibility to give stations on lease for a period of up to 99 years, permit commercial/residential development on either the public-private partnership (PPP), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) or self-development mode. In November 2018, the corporation was entrusted with the redevelopment of about 8,600 stations.
Through the programme, IR aims to enhance passenger experience by redeveloping stations and generating steady revenue streams through monetisation of land.
Progress so far
To begin with, the IRSDC was entrusted with the task of developing a total of 15 stations – Habibganj, Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh, Shivaji Nagar, Surat, Gandhinagar, Baiyyappanahalli, Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar, Jaipur, Sabarmati, Kanpur and Thakurli. So far, work on only two stations (Habibganj and Gandhinagar) is under way while all the other station projects are currently either at the planning stage or under tendering.
- Habibganj station: The Habibganj station, with a built up area of 1.2 million square feet, is the first station to be developed on a PPP basis. It will have a dedicated concourse area besides facilities such as a green building with LED lightingand a wastewater treatment plant, among other facilities. To execute the redevelopment project, in March 2017, the concession agreement was signed with the Bansal Group. As of October 2019, work is in progress and about 80 per cent of the civil works have been completed. Habibganj is being developed at an investment of Rs 1 billion. In addition, about Rs 3.5 billion will be spent on commercial development. Construction work is expected to be completed by December 2019.
- Gandhinagar station: Unlike the Habibganj station, the station at Gandhinagar is being developed on an EPC basis, for which the contract was awarded to Kunal Structure (India) Private Limited in January 2017. The Gandhinagar Railway and Urban Development Corporation was incorporated as the SPV for project execution. The first-of-its-kind station will have a five-star hotel above the station premises with about 300 rooms, besides having a column-free roof spanning 99 metres. A dedicated concourse with facilities for the disabled, two subways and parking facilities will also be developed. The project entails a cost of about Rs 6.75 billion and about 89 per cent of the work has been completed so far.
- Other key stations: The Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Gwalior, Surat and Baiyyappanahalli stations are currently at the tendering stage. Of these, three stations (Anand Vihar, Bijwasan and Chandigarh) will be developed on the EPC mode, while the others will be developed on a PPP basis. For Chandigarh, request for qualification (RfQ) bids for station development are expected to be invited soon. Simultaneously, bids for commercial development at Chandigarh and the other two stations will also be invited soon. Moreover, RfQ bids for the Nagpur and Gwalior stations are currently under evaluation and request for proposal bids for both stations are likely to be issued in the next two to three months.
RfQs for two other stations – Surat and Baiyyappanahalli – are also expected to be issued soon. At the Surat station, a multimodal transport hub will be developed, for which land pooling by all levels of government has been done. Further, an SPV – the Surat Integrated Development Corporation (SIDCO) – has been incorporated for project execution. Meanwhile, the design for the Baiyyappanahalli station is being modified to take into account the development already undertaken by IR. Besides, tenders for the Thakurli and Chanakyapuri stations will be invited under the EPC mode.
Another 50 stations are at the planning stage. In August 2019, the IRSDC signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with IRCON International Limited for preparing detailed project reports and providing project management consultancy services for 12 railway stations – Yeshwantpur, Mumbai Central, Miraj, Karnal, Satna, Delhi Cantonment, Varkala, Howrah, Ghaziabad, Jalna, Buxar and Thiruvananthapuram Central. MoAs for 38 stations have been signed with five other central public sector enterprises – Engineering Projects India Limited, Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, MECON Limited, RITES Limited, and NPCC Limited.
In addition to the development of world-class amenities at these stations, IRSDC has also started an integrated facility management system on a pilot basis at five stations – Bengaluru, Pune, Anand Vihar, Chandigarh and Secunderabad. Going forward, the agency plans to replicate this at another 20 stations.
Next steps
In the next three years, the IRSDC aims to award all the 50 stations currently at the planning stage. To expedite the process of design approvals, it has adopted a single-window clearance system. Also, discussions with respect to levying user development fee for mobilising funds for the development of stations are ongoing. These steps are not only expected to expedite implementation of the programme but will also reduce the financial burden on IR.