Indian Railways to get these world-class stations! GMR, Monte Carlo, JKB among 9 firms bidding for 4 stations

Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways’ bid to develop rail stations into world-class transit hubs on the PPP model has garnered great interest from private companies.

Indian Railways to get world-class stations! Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways’ bid to develop rail stations into world-class transit hubs on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model has garnered great interest from private companies. As many as nine private companies have shown interest in the Nagpur, Gwalior, Sabarmati and Amritsar railway station redevelopment projects. The PPP projects worth Rs 1,300 crore have seen interest from 9 entities – Cube Construction Engineering, JKB Infrastructure, Kalyan Toll Infrastructure Limited, GMR Business and Consultancy Firm LLP, Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited, GR Infraprojects Limited, Monte Carlo Limited, Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd and ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments.

In December 2019, IRSDC (Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation), the nodal agency, invited RFQs for the redevelopment of four railway stations – Nagpur, Gwalior, Sabarmati, and Amritsar stations. These railway stations will be transformed into iconic city centres in the coming years. On 26 June 2020, the RFQ applications of these four railway stations were opened by IRSDC. The applications received were evaluated and shortlisted by IRSDC. Of these, 29 applications qualified for the next stage, IRSDC said.

According to IRSDC, eight applicants qualify for Gwalior station, six applicants qualify for Nagpur station, nine applicants qualify for Sabarmati station and six applicants qualify for Amritsar station. Here is the station-wise list of the qualified applicants:

For these four railway projects, RFP is currently under preparation and will be called shortly from the applicants that are shortlisted. A built-up area of 54 lakh sq ft is allowed for commercial development. As these are railway projects under the Railway Act 1989, no land use change and prior environmental clearance are required.

These four station redevelopment projects are the first Indian Railways’ projects to have the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee’s in-principle approval. Also, for the concessionaire of the redeveloped stations, these four railway stations are the first ones to have provision of pre-determined user charges on passengers as one of the main revenue streams.