Rejig of core New Delhi railway station delinked from rest of project

NEW DELHI: Giving the final push to the redevelopment of the New Delhi station, Indian Railways has rejigged its plan by delinking station development from commercial development and real estate activities. It will first take up station infrastructure development including upgradation of passenger amenities, parking lots and core areas of the station building. In the second phase, it would take up commercial development involving real estate.
The railway ministry has been toying with several ideas and plans for redevelopment of this busiest station for around a decade, but has made hardly any progress.
The sources also said the railways would take up the redevelopment on a hybrid ‘build, operate and transfer (BOT)’ model where the national transporter will pay 40% of the project cost during construction. The private player will have to invest the remaining 60% and the railways will pay back this amount in instalments spread over 26 years. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has adopted this model of NH development known as ‘hybrid annuity model (HAM)’.
Sources said the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) made a detailed presentation before Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday. Since the railways will pay back the entire investment in instalments and thereby minimizing the risk of private investors, the proposed user fee to be charged from passengers will come to the national transporter.
According to the plan, a double dome architecture structure of 450-meter long and 80-meter high would come up over the station. The total cost is estimated at around Rs 4,470 crore and there would be 25 floors high twin domes.