Rlys to redevelop 50 stations at ₹7,500 cr

The Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) will invest ~7,500 crore for the redevelopment of 50 stations across the country in 2019, an official said on Tuesday.

Separate arrival and departure areas at railway stations like airports to improve security and passenger flow management are a key element of the redevelopment project.

“At most of the major stations, arrivals and departures will be separate. However, stations where there is not much crowd, the existing system will be in place,’’ said IRSDC managing director S K Lohia. He said departing passengers currently wait at platforms to board trains. Lohia added those waiting areas will be now be shifted to concourses. “Depending on the space, we will decide whether arrival and departure will be segregated by different levels or through partition at the same level,” said Lohia. The IRSDC plans to scale up the redevelopment plan that will initially be focussed on 50 stations through a public-private partnership involving an initial capital investment of ~7500 crore, according to officials aware of the plan.

It is also in an advanced stage of securing a loan of about ~600 crore from the Indian Railway Finance Corporation for the development and redevelopment of three stations – Anand Vihar, Bijwasan and Chandigarh.The work on redevelopment of Gandhinagar, Habibganj, Charbagh and Gomtinagar stations is scheduled to be completed by March 2019.

The IRSDC has awarded work for 43 stations and plans to call tenders for the redevelopment of stations at Nagpur, Baiyappanhalli, Amritsar, Gwalior, Sabarmati, and Thakurli.The railways plan to put space at stations and railway land around them for commercial use to fund the redevelopment.