10 railway stations including Delhi’s Sarai Rohilla, Lucknow and Kota identified for smart redevelopment

As many as 10 railway stations have been identified to roll out the redevelopment of stations on a self-financing basis through land monetisation in synergy with the Smart City Mission of the Ministry of Urban Development.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was today signed for the smart redevelopment of Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Lucknow, Gomtinagar, Kota, Tirupati, Nellore, Ernakulam, Puducherry, Madgaon and Thane new stations, a ministry release said.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and NBCC signed the MoU in the presence of Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu and Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu.

Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said redevelopment of railway stations further enhances the smartness of cities by addressing congestion and sanitation at stations that are visited by a large number of people. He said Prime Minister desired both the ministries to work in tandem to enhance the smartness of cities.

Prabhu noted that smart redevelopment of stations would substantially enhance the passenger experience. He asked Railway Board and NBCC to start working on identifying further 25 stations for redevelopment.

MD  of NBCC A.K.Mittal assured the two ministers that at least five stations would be redeveloped by 2019.

As per the MoU, a Special Purpose Vehicle will be formed at the national level as a joint venture between RLDA and NBCC on 50:50 shareholding basis. The SPV, in turn, will enter into City Support Agreements with respective cities. The redevelopment of stations and commercial development on railway land will be done in alignment with the Smart City Plans of respective cities.

RLDA will lease out the land to the SPV at a nominal token cost for development for a fixed lease period of up to 45 years and NBCC will execute the project work on behalf of the SPV as project management consultant.

Earnings from the commercial development of land parcels at stations will be utilised to redevelop the stations for creating better passenger amenities and necessary infrastructure and the surplus earnings will go to RLDA which would, in turn, would be remitted to zonal railways, it said.

Project completion period will be three years from the date of availability of encumbrances free site or award of works to construction agency, whichever is later.

The upkeep and maintenance of the stations and the commercial property shall be done by the SPV. Non-fare revenues generated from the Railway station except that from Railway Display Network will be passed on to SPV to meet expenditure on redeveloped stations.

NBCC will incur an initial investment of up to five percent of project cost and will charge an interest at the rate not exceeding 12 percent per year. NBCC will charge four percent of the project cost as PMC charges, three percent of the cost for preparation of Detailed Project Reports and two percent of lease revenue for marketing and other services.

Entire revenue from lease revenues from built up spaces will be deposited in an ESCROW account of the SPV which is to be managed by a Committee to be formed.

RLDA will appoint the chairman of the SPV while NBCC will select the chief executive officer.