Nine firms are in the race to secure contracts for redevelopment of four railway stations. This includes Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar and Sabarmati railway stations redevelopment under a PPP initiative worth around Rs 1,300 crore.
The Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) is the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to undertake redevelopment of stations.
The nine firms namely, JKB Infrastructure, GMR Business and Consultancy Firm, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments, Kalpataru Power Transmission, Anchorage Infrastructure Investments, Monte Carlo, Kalyan Toll Infrastructure, GR Infraprojects, and Cube Construction Engineering, have put in 29 separate applications for the redevelopment of the four stations.
Nine applications have qualified for Sabarmati station, eight for Gwalior and six each for Nagpur and Amritsar stations.
These four stations are the first railway projects to have received in-principle approval of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) formed by the government.
These four stations are also the first ones to have provision of pre-determined user charges on passengers and visitors as one of the main revenue stream for the concessionaire of the redeveloped stations.
IRSDC had invited requests for qualification (RfQs) in December 2019 to redevelop four railway stations -- Gwalior, Nagpur, Amritsar and Sabarmati and transform them into iconic city centres.
On 26 June 2020, IRSDC opened RfQ applications of the four railway stations and received response from 32 developers and funds despite the current COVID-19 scenario. The proposals were evaluated and 29 applications qualified for next stage.
The total indicative cost for redevelopment of the four stations is around Rs 1,300 crore. The total built-up area allowed for commercial development is 54 lakh sq ft. In addition, no land use change and prior environmental clearance is required as these are railway projects under the Railway Act 1989.