Decrepit and dirty railway stations may soon be a thing of the past, with the Union Cabinet on Thursday deciding to involve private players to redevelop over 400 stations in metros and major cities besides pilgrim centres and tourist spots. Among the stations that will be redeveloped are CST, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Dadar, Thane, Kalyan, Pune, Nagpur and Solapur.
The Cabinet also cleared six-laning of the eastern peripheral expressway through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh which, when complete, will go a long way in easing air pollution in Delhi by enabling trucks and other vehicles passing through the region to bypass the capital. The Union Cabinet has decided to revamp over 400 railway stations. The stations will feature business centres, shopping outlets, restaurants and Wi-Fi-enabled waiting lounges. They will also have luxury hotels, multilevel parking, separate entry and exit levels as the railways looks to leverage its prime real estate in and around these stations, in the heart of cities.
Announcing the decision, finance minister Arun Jaitley said, “The Cabinet has approved the redevelopment of railway stations. Four hundred railway stations are to be redeveloped using the Swiss Challenge method.“
The decision, the FM said, will encourage innovative ideas from interested parties at no cost to the railways.
Under the Swiss Challenge method, open bids are invited from interested parties.Once someone submits a bid, another party can give suggestions to improve and beat that proposal. An expert pan el will accept the best proposal and the original proposer will get a chance to accept it if it is an improvement on his proposal. In case the original proposer is not able to match the competing counter-proposal, the project is awarded to the counter-proposer. This system has been used by several state governments.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted, “E-bidding process leaves no discretion... it will be a very transparent method. All bids will be done only through webbased bidding process, it will see evaluation by independent experts. Budget announcement fulfilled.“
“This move is a big step towards passenger service, modernization and job creation,“ Prabhu said. He clarified that land ownership will remain with the railways.“Station will be developed to use land and air rights, no selling of land. Customer service is our priority ,“ he tweeted. A senior railway official said private players would be engaged to modernize passenger amenities at stations.
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