The Puducherry railway station redevelopment project is estimated to cost Rs 44 crore.

Puducherry Railway Station to become world-class! Indian Railways to give a new makeover to Puducherry railway station! The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is all set to conduct online pre-bid meetings for the station’s redevelopment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Through video conferencing, two online pre-bid meetings will be conducted on 10 June 2020 and 17 June 2020. The Puducherry railway station redevelopment project is estimated to cost Rs 44 crore. As of now, the tender is scheduled to be awarded by the end of August 2020. The pre-bid meetings for the redevelopment of the railway station are slated to witness the participation from interested bidders.

The decision to conduct online pre-bid meetings has been taken after RLDA floated an RFP (Request for Proposal) for the re-development of the Puducherry railway station, inviting bids for the selection of a suitable public or private firm. Under the redevelopment project, the Puducherry railway station will be equipped with state-of-the-art amenities such as provisions for differently abled, harmonious co-existence of the station as well as real estate projects, green building on the DBFOT model, etc.

The bidder who is selected will be required to undertake the up-gradation and redevelopment of the station. This will include the commercial development of the surrounding railway land as well as its operation and maintenance. The proposed land parcels are spread over 2 acres (Station Component) and 3.8 acres (Commercial Component). Under the Concession Agreement, the project’s concession period is 60 years which means that the concessionaire must maintain and operate the station buildings as well as the estate for a period of 60 years.

Due to its proximity to the major cities of Bangalore, Chennai, and Coimbatore, Puducherry has emerged as a popular weekend getaway. Every year, Puducherry witnesses a huge tourist footfall, and the footfall is slated to grow to 25 lakhs by the year 2022.