Railways to outsource ops at five rail stations
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has decided to outsource operation and maintenance of five railway stations to firms outside state control for 15 years to improve customer experience.
The railway stations, to be outsourced under the pilot project called the Integrated Station
Management, are Pune, Bengaluru, Secunderabad, Anand
Vihar (in New Delhi) and Chandigarh.
These five stations, along with undertaking the bidding procthe Habibganj railway station in ess.”
Bhopal, will take the number of The idea is to have expert manstations in India being privately agement firms on board that have managed to six. experience managing hotels too,
According to Indian Railways, the official said. the stations will be handed over The revenue sharing model for to state-run Indian Railways Stathe five stations is yet to be finaltion Development Corp. (IRSDC) ized, and will most probably be for a makeover. IRSDC will subbased on gross operating profit sequently invite bids from primodel (profit after subtracting all vate firms for operation and operating expenses) that is folmaintenance of the stations. lowed by the hotel industry, the
The firms that win the conperson said. tracts will handle operations IRSDC managing director S K such as selling platform tickets, Lohia confirmed the developrunning station stalls, railway ment, but declined to comment display network, advertising on further as the agreements have station and its premises and not yet been signed. parking. However, all core operaIndian Railways’ ambitious tions such as signalling and station re-development project is movement of trains will remain facing several hurdles, including with the Railways. concerns raised by Niti Aayog
A senior government official, and the finance ministry on fundon condition of anonymity, said: ing and leasing, the railways fail“Railways is in process of signing ing to find investors for brownagreements for handing over the field projects and real estate stations to IRSDC. Once it’s done, developers demanding more they will be responsible for incentives.
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