The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has conducted online roadshows on the redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) — the first project to be undertaken on the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) concept in the NCR.

The RLDA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Railways for the development of vacant railway land. Currently, the Indian Railways has approximately f43,000 hectares of vacant land across the country and is also handling 84 railway colony redevelopment projects.

‘Flagship project’

“The redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station is our flagship project that will transform Delhi-NCR. The project has attracted interest from various stakeholders. As a responsible organisation, our foremost priority is to engage with them, keep them apprised of various developments and incorporate their views and suggestions into the project,” said RLDA Vice-Chairman Ved Parkash Dudeja.

The objective of the initiative is to engage with relevant stakeholders such as leading international real estate developers, infrastructure players and financial institutions from advanced geographies such as Europe, Australia and South Asia.

According to the RLDA, the project is currently at the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage with February 2 as the last date of submission of applications.

While RLDA is the approving authority for the master plan, an Apex Committee under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has been constituted to ensure coordination amongst the various civic agencies involved and expedite the approvals and clearances.

The roadshow was preceded by a pre-bid conference held in September 2020 for the project, which entails a capital expenditure of approximately $680 million over a period of four years and offers multiple revenue streams to the developer including revenue from real estate rights for a period of 60 years.

According to the RLDA, the station has a master plan area of 120 hectares of which 88 hectares is being planned in Phase 1; the redevelopment will seek to remodel the NDLS into a world-class station in line with global standards.