Habibganj railway station in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhinagar railway station in Gujarat, two world-class railway stations with facilities matching to that of airports will be ready by January 2019. These stations are being modernized under ambitious stations modernization plan through private-public partnership. “Work on both the stations is progressing satisfactorily, we are hopeful that Habibganj and Gandhinagar railway stations will be commissioned in January-end or February-beginning,” said SK Lohia, Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) MD and CEO. Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) has been appointed as the nodal agency for modernization and the resources for this would be arranged by leasing out unused land and air space around stations.
Habibganj becomes first railway station in the country which is being developed under PPP model with Bansal Pathways Pvt Ltd. as IRSDC partner. The redevelopment of station would cost around 450 crore with 100 crore required for the station development and 350 crore for commercial operations around the station. The station would have conveniences like that of an airport which includes the facility of gaming, museums, retail markets, LED lighting, waiting lounge. The station will go ‘green’ with facility of waste water recycling.
Gandhinagar railway station is being developed through a Special Purpose Entity (a legal entity to fulfill narrow, specific or temporary objectives) between IRSDC and the government of Gujarat. The 250 crore redevelopment project will have all the key facilities that are available on airports including a five star hotel with 300 rooms to serve the tourists. The hotel will be built in the station premises and events like Vibrant Gujarat Summit are set to provide golden opportunity for the business of the hotel. The ground floor which is currently under construction gives a picture of grandeur and luxury of the future station. It is being built at 22 meters above the ground with 3 buildings giving the impressions of the shape of petals. It will have 600 seats for the convenience of tourists with all the other facilities.
It seems that more such modernization drives as of Habibganj and Gandhinagar are in the pipeline. The railways has already lined up 600 railway stations for modernization which would need an investment of 1 trillion rupees. The aforementioned sum of money required for this would not come from budgetary expenditure. Therefore, the concept of leasing was thought of by the railways to meet the expenses of modernization.
Railway ministry had already floated the idea of leasing in 2015 but it could not get the support of bidders. The bidders were asking to extend the leasing period from 45 years to 90 years. Keeping these demands in mind, the ministry has extended the time period to 90 years in the new plan. IRSDC, the appointed agency for leasing, will have financial freedom including an option to raise money directly from the market. Agencies have decided to go ahead with a liberal approach on leasing and redevelopment, the approval for developing residential complexes will be decided on a case to case basis.
The stations with a higher footfall will get more money from bidders and therefore, could be modernized at a better and bigger scale. The residential complexes will be developed not only for the railway employees but for the general buyers too. The ratio for commercial and residential complexes has been fixed at 80:20 to better utilize the vacant spaces. IRSDC will probably use Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model for development of railway stations.
Under the leadership of PM Modi and Piyush Goyal, Indian Railways is being transformed at a fast pace and the modernization plans are being put forth. Indian Railways has operated with socialist era hangover for far too long and Goyal is trying to make it friendly as far as markets, public finances and consumers are concerned.