Redevelopment of New Delhi and Mumbai railway stations: Scope and challenges

Indian Railways has decided to upgrade the New Delhi railway station and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal railway station with state-of-the-art amenities and facilities for passengers

Both these stations are significant as they record a huge footfall of passengers considering the importance of the stations. The success or failure of these initiatives for the Mumbai and New Delhi railways stations, as well as the reaction of the market, will be a test of the marketability and roll-out of future efforts in the field of railway station redevelopment.

According to experts, Indian Railways’ plan to convert these railway stations into a multimodal hub has various advantages it as well as some challenges. Vishnu P. Sudarsan, Partner, J Sagar Associates says, “The proposed redevelopment of the Mumbai and New Delhi railways stations through public private partnership is a welcome move that has expectedly drawn interest from a wide swathe of stakeholders.

A commendable amount of effort has been put into the structuring of these projects, while building on the experience and the benefit of hindsight that comes with the previous station redevelopment initiatives.”