Prime Minister Modi To Lay Foundation Stone For Redevelopment Of Five Railway Stations In Tamil Nadu

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment of five railway stations — Chennai Egmore, Rameswaram, Madurai, Katpadi and Kanyakumari, in a programme to be held in Chennai later in the evening today (26 May).

This project will be completed at a cost of over Rs 1,800 crore, and is being undertaken with a view to enhancing the convenience and comfort of the passengers through the provision of modern amenities.

History

Indian Railways has one of the single largest transportation and logistics networks of the world. It runs 23,000 trains including 13,500 passenger trains to carry 24 million passengers per day connecting about 8,000 stations spread across the Indian sub-continent.

Most of the major stations of metro cities and important junctions need improvement in capacity and basic infrastructure to handle passenger growth. In absence of these parameters, there is poor service delivery resulting in discomfort and inconvenience to the passengers.

To address these problems, Indian Railways, in 2009-10, had decided to develop/redevelop certain identified railway stations of metro cities and important junctions as world-class stations as upgraded to the international standards and capacity with modern facilities and passenger amenities.

Redevelopment of railway stations across India is a priority agenda of the Ministry of Railways. Indian Railways has initiated the redevelopment of railway stations with the primary objectives of providing world-class passenger amenities, making them hubs of economic development and re-establishing them as the nerve centres of cities.

Existing Framework

The ministry has formulated various schemes viz 'model', 'modern' and 'adarsh' station scheme for upgradation/beautification/modernisation of stations of Indian Railways.

‘Model’ station scheme was in vogue from 1999 to 2008. Initially, one station per Division of Indian Railways was selected under the scheme. In the year 2006, the criteria were revised to include all ‘A’ and ‘B’ category stations on the basis of the annual passenger earnings under the scheme. Under this scheme, 594 stations were selected for upgradation. Out of these, 590 stations have already been developed. As regards, the remaining four stations, Sambalpur Road Station and Alnavar Station have been dropped from the scheme, while Ultadanga and Mal Bazar stations have been closed.

‘Modern’ station scheme was in vogue from 2006-07 to 2007-08. Under this scheme, 637 stations were selected for upgradation which has already been developed.

Presently, railway stations are upgraded/modernised under ‘adarsh’ station scheme based on identified need of providing enhanced passenger amenities at stations. Under ‘adarsh’ station scheme, 1,253 stations have been identified for development, out of which 1,213 stations so far have been developed and the remaining 40 stations are targeted to be developed/modernised in the financial year 2022-23.

The above mentioned schemes were scattered in nature which generally did not involve major architectural planning to improve the overall aesthetic look of the stations. Consequently, as a parallel measure, a new scheme of major upgradation of railway stations has been initiated.

The facilities envisaged in this scheme includes rebuilding/improvement/augmentation of station building, congestion free non-conflicting entry/exit to the station premises, segregation of arrival/departure of passengers, adequate concourse without overcrowding, integration of both sides of the city wherever feasible, user friendly signages, well illuminated circulating area and sufficient provision for drop off, pick up and parking etc, and all facilities of divyangjans among other facilities as per requirement and feasibility.

So far 41 stations have been identified for major upgradation under this scheme.

The National Asset Monetisation document has identified redevelopment of 400 railway stations with the participation of private players as a part of PPP projects.

The railway stations have been divided into three categories (Tier 1: 50 stations, Tier 2: 100 stations, and Tier 3: 250 stations) based on the commercial potential and potential scale of development.

This is envisaged to be achieved through leveraging the commercial development opportunity of vacant land and air space in and around railways stations, ie, station redevelopment projects shall generally be cost neutral to the railways.

PPP Mode

The Ministry of Railways is exploring various possibilities to develop railway stations under different models including public private partnership (PPP) model amongst others.

Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station in Gujarat is the country’s first redeveloped railway station in line with the government’s plan to modernise railway stations through PPP mode. It was commissioned on 16 July 2021.

The redeveloped Rani Kamlapati Railway Station in Bhopal was developed and commissioned on 15 November 2021. Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (Bengaluru) is ready for commissioning.

Work is in progress at five stations viz, Ayodhya (UP), Bijwasan (Delhi), Safdarjung (Delhi), Gomtinagar (UP) and Ajni (Maharashtra). Tendering is on for Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Udhna (Gujarat), and Gaya (Bihar) by the zonal railways.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM) Railway Station in Maharashtra and New Delhi Railway Station in Delhi have been identified for development under hybrid build operate and transfer (HYBOT) model of PPP mode.

EPC Mode

With the aim of speeding up the station redevelopment programme, Indian Railways has floated tenders worth Rs 5,000 crore for 14 stations on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode.

Discarding the PPP model, the railways has selected 53 stations in the first phase across the country to be redeveloped in EPC mode to expedite the work in a fixed timeline. The total of 53 stations selected in the first phase envisages investment of about Rs 15,000 crore.

Since it was taking longer to execute redevelopment work in the PPP model, it has been decided to go for EPC mode, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The stations for whom tenders have been floated include Gwalior (Rs 500 crore), Lucknow (Rs 475 crore), Tirupati (Rs 313 crore), Gaya (Rs 300 crore), Ghaziabad (Rs 375 crore), Gandhinagar Jaipur (Rs 200 crore), Puri ( Rs 175 crore), Kanyakumari, Ernakulam in Kerala and Dhankariya Talab station in Kota.