The Ministry of Railways is expecting to receive bids for redevelopment of 23 stations in private-public partnership by August, Rajiv Chaudhary, adviser (station development), railways ministry, told BloombergQuint. This is part of the NDA government's plan to redevelop 400 stations across the country in the next 5-7 years.
Recently, the Indian Railways chose Habibganj in Bhopal as the first station to be redeveloped under this project, which has been allotted to a consortium of city-based Bansal Construction and Indore-based Prakash Asphalting and Toll Highways (India) Ltd. last year.
These next 23 stations include: Lokmanya Tilak, Pune, Thane, Visakhapatnam, Howrah, Kanpur Central, Allahabad, Kamakhya, Faridabad, Jammu Tawi, Udaipur City, Secundarabad, Vijaywada, Ranchi, Chennai Central, Kozhikkode, Yesvantpur, Bangalore Cant., Bhopal, Mumbai Central (Main), Bandra Terminus, Borivali and Indore, Chaudhary said.
The project, which is aimed at attracting an investment of around Rs 1 lakh crore, focuses on improving passenger amenities at stations by leveraging real estate available with the railways to fund the development.
(Some) Malaysian companies have shown an interest in this programme. They have indicated that they will bid for redevelopment of five railway stations out of these 23 stations. They will try to form long term partnership with us.Rajiv Chaudhary, Adviser (Station Development), Railways Ministry
Judin Abdul Karim, chairman, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Holdings Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, told BloombergQuint recently that they are in talks with the Indian government for the redevelopment project.
“We are interested to work for redevelopment of stations in India. We are in talks with the government,” said Karim on the sidelines of SMART Railways Conclave in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The financial model for redevelopment work across stations has been devised in a way that the government doesn't incur any expenditure, as the developer would be rebuilding the railway stations and maintaining it for 15 years, according to a presentation shared by the railways ministry.
In return, the developer would be granted leasing rights for the commercial properties developed at these stations for 45 years. These properties could be malls, hotels, hospitals, among others.
An amount of Rs 68,000 crore will be spent on commercial development and Rs 28,000 crore on station redevelopment, said Chaudhary, adding that the ministry is expecting a premium of Rs 10,000 crore.
The first phase of the programme was launched in February this year and the ministry had planned to award contracts in March but the process got delayed.
A lot of industry people have some apprehensions which we are sorting out everyday. They are taking time to make their bids, so we have been flexible in the date of opening. We don't find any merit in opening if we don't receive any bids.Rajiv Chaudhary, Adviser (Station Development), Railways Ministry
Meanwhile, redevelopment work will also be starting in Anand Vihar, Bijwasan and Surat stations, apart from the 23 listed above, but under the Indian Railways Station Development Corporation Ltd.
Request for proposal has been made for Anand Vihar and Bijwasan, while a request for quotation has been made for Surat. Recently, the government also cleared terms of reference for redevelopment of Anand Vihar and Bijwasan railway stations.
(This story has been updated. A previous version of this story incorrectly said Railways is set to invite bids instead of receiving it.)
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