Aimed at attracting nearly Rs 1 lakh crore private investment,
the station redevelopment project envisages infrastructure revamp at platforms
and circulating areas.
The Indian Railways is
firming up plans to join hands with Malaysia to redevelop about 20 stations in
Tier-II cities across the country.
Aimed at attracting
nearly Rs 1 lakh crore private investment, the station redevelopment project
envisages infrastructure revamp at platforms and circulating areas.
It also entails
commercial exploitation of station areas for constructing hotels, eateries,
multiplexes, shopping malls and office complex among others for the use of
developers for a period of 45 years.
For facilitating
growth of Tier II cities, the Centre, state and local governments provide a lot
of support to transform these not so big cities into business havens and making
them India's fastest growing cities.
While cities like
Delhi and Mumbai are in Tier-I category, cities such as Faridabad, Cuttack,
Amritsar, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Jammu, and Bikaner are considered Tier-II cities.
A long term
partnership will be forged with Malaysia on a government-to-government basis
for offering about 20 stations to the southeast Asian country, said a senior
Railway Ministry official.
Railways have already
launched the ambitious project offering about 400 stations to be redeveloped in
PPP model envisaging investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore.
In the first phase, 23
railway stations including the iconic Howrah station, Mumbai Central and
Chennai Central have been selected for the project which aims to make the best
use of the assets of the stations.
A meeting was recently
held with Malaysian officials where they showed keen interest in the station
redevelopment project.
While Malaysia is
participating in the bidding process for 23 stations, the railways are mulling
to offer about 20 stations separately involving about Rs 10,000 crore
investment on a government-to-government partnership basis, the official added.
The long term
partnership scheme in station redevelopment project with Malaysia will be launched
after getting Cabinet approval.
Other stations being
modernised in the first phase include Pune, Thane, Visakhapatnam, Kamakhya,
Jammu Tawi, Udaipur City, Secunderabad, Vijaywada, Ranchi, Kozhikode,
Yesvantpur, Bangalore Cantt, Bhopal, Bandra Terminus, Borivali and Indore.
Bhopal station has
already been awarded to a developer for redevelopment.
Railway Minister
Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the start of the work at an estimated cost of Rs
450 crore involving construction of hotel, hospital, parking lot, office and
restaurant at the station premises.
The developer will
hold the rights for commercial exploitation of the land for a period of 45
years, while ownership of the land would remain with the railways.
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