Indian Railways’ land at Howrah likely to become tourism hub with water sports; details here

Howrah is known to be an important transportation hub and is the gateway to West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata.

New tourism hub in Howrah! Indian Railways’ RLDA is all set to undertake the commercial development of a large railway land parcel – Salt Golah at Howrah, in the state of West Bengal. The Salt Golah site, spanning across an area of 89,032 sq m, consists of some old salt godowns as well as administrative offices in a highly dilapidated condition. The Salt Golah site is situated on a 20-metre-wide road along the Hooghly riverbank and it is a distance of 1.5 kilometres from the Howrah railway station. Moreover, according to RLDA, the site is also well connected through road and river transport. Howrah is known to be an important transportation hub and is the gateway to West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata.

According to Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice Chairman, RLDA, the river-front location of Salt Golah, which during British times, used to be the residence and offices of the Salt Commissioner, is currently full of dilapidated buildings. The Rail Land Development Authority is aiming to establish a multitude of possibilities for modern tourism. Dudeja further said that the wide strip of 15 metres can be utilized for developing water sports. While the front of the river can be utilized for commercial ferrying activities. The RLDA Vice Chairman believes that besides putting the land to better use, the development will also boost tourism, create jobs as well as enhance prospects of investment in the region.

For the commercial development of railway land at Salt Golah, Howrah, online bids have been invited by the RLDA for engaging marketing and financial consultants. According to RLDA, a valuation need to be carried out by the consultant for different lease periods ranging from 30 years to 99 years as well as NPV at different rates of discount in order to arrive at the optimum valuation. A financial model will be developed by the consultant for the project. The consultant will also market the project as well as assist RLDA in managing the process of bidding for the project’s development and in selecting the suitable developer to realize the objective.