Rlys offers 5 stations to private players for upgrade

The Railways have offered five stations to private investors for redevelopment. The stations are New Delhi, Anand Vihar (in the national capital), Chandigarh, Bhopal and Pune.

“We are working on an ambitious and significant project of re-developing the railway stations and have about five railway stations to begin with for which we would immediately invite the private sector participation,” Railway Minister Pawan Bansal told industrialists on Friday.

“The land on the sides of tracks has to be retained for possible expansions, building more parallel rail tracks and the land adjacent to railway stations has to be used to re-develop the entire 7,000 stations gradually,” he said. Bansal inaugurated an international conference organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

Mamata Banerjee, the then railway minister, had anno­unced in 2009 to redevelop 50 stations into world class stations. However, the plan lacks  funds and the government has since been looking for private participation. Bansal wanted to emphasise a bigger role for private investors as, according to him, railways have to contribute two percentage points to the 9 per cent growth target of the country.

“There is scope for the private sector to infuse about Rs 1 lakh crore during next five years to improve the rail network across India and for this we have different projects and about 105 models including the first mile and last mile connectivity,” said the minister.

“We are working on a PPP model to connect main railway lines with ports, mines and clusters of industries and it can prove to be most attractive and fruitful in railways than in any other sector,” he said.
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“Besides, we are also working out on increasing the capacity of passenger trains on a PPP basis as this growth model can result in a win-win situation for industry, government and the public at large,” he added.