10 Railway Stations being developed as Smart Railway Stations

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : An MoU between Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and National Building Construction Corporation Ltd. was signed on June 30, 2017, for redevelopment of 10 stations viz. Tirupati, Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Nellore, Madgaon, Charbagh (Lucknow), Gomtinagar, Kota, Thane New, Ernakulam Jn. and Puducherry as a part of the SMART City project launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Contracts have been awarded for redevelopment of Gomtinagar and Charbagh railway stations while bids have been invited for redevelopment of Puducherry and Tirupati stations.

Station redevelopment is planned by leveraging commercial development of land and air space in and around stations, i.e. vacant railway land and air space not required by Railways for its immediate operational needs shall be leased out to interested parties for setting up commercial establishments.

The revenues realised from commercial development of stations should be sufficient to at least cover the entire cost of station redevelopment after meeting the full expenditure on real estate development and maintenance obligations. The station redevelopment project would be cost neutral to Railways.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on December 19, 2018, according to a PIB release.