Railway Station Redevelopment: Tender Awarded For Seven And Invited For 15 More; Here's How The Plan Is Taking Shape

Earlier this week, Brahmaputra Infrastructure Limited in a joint venture with JCC Infra Projects secured an order worth Rs 177.45 crore to upgrade the Gandhinagar Railway Station of Jaipur Division under the North Western Railway (NWR) in Rajasthan.

Gandhinagar Railway Station which is located in Bajaj Nagar area of Jaipur mainly caters to the southern areas of the city. Many trains to and from Delhi have a stoppage at this station.

The NWR Zone had invited bids in May this year for upgradation of Gandhinagar (Jaipur) Railway Station through engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. The estimated value of the project is Rs 180.91 crore with completion period of 30 months.

Indian Railways has planned for redevelopment of stations by leveraging real estate potential of sparable land and air space in and around the stations. The government has sanctioned Rs 17,500 crore for the modernisation of 46 stations in the first phase of the project.

For this, the railways conducts techno-economic feasibility studies of stations across the country. Based on the outcome of these feasibility studies, stations are taken up for redevelopment in phases.

Swarajya takes a look at the status of the ambitious redevelopment programme of Indian railways.

Background

• The Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station (Gujarat) under Western railway was developed as the country’s first 'world-class station'. The station, which sports a look of a modern airport was redeveloped at a cost of about Rs 800 crore and was commissioned on 16 July 2021.

• Rani Kamlapati Railway Station (Madhya Pradesh) under West Central Railway has been redeveloped as the country’s second 'world-class station'. The station, named after Queen Kamlapati of the Gond kingdom, is the country's first ISO certified and first PPP model based redeveloped railway station. The Prime Minister on 15 November 2021 inaugurated the station which has been redeveloped at a total cost of around Rs 450 crore.

• Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (Bengaluru) under South Western Railway has been commissioned as the country’s third world-class railway station. The Prime Minister on 20 June 2022 inaugurated India's first centralised AC Terminal at Baiyappanahalli, which has been redeveloped at a total cost of around Rs 315 crore.

• The redevelopment work is in progress at five stations, namely Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh), Bijwasan (Delhi), Safdarjung (Delhi), Gomtinagar (Uttar Pradesh) and Ajni (Maharashtra).

Projects Awarded

Under the brand new station redevelopment plan, Indian Railways have awarded seven stations for redevelopment — Tirupati, Somnath, Puri, Ernakulam Junction, Udhna, Gandhinagar, and Gaya.

1. Tirupati

Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati Railway Station attracts a high footfall of travellers due to the Tirumala Tirupati Balaji Temple in the city. The redevelopment of Tirupati station is being undertaken by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA).

The contracts for the re-development of Tirupati station have been awarded in May 2022. The works will be taken up on EPC mode and are expected to be completed within three years.

2. Somnath

The RLDA invited bids for redevelopment of Somnath Railway Station in the month of May 2022. The station will be upgraded on EPC model at an estimated cost of Rs 134 crore. Somnath Railway Station belongs to the Western Railway of Bhavnagar Division.

The historic city of Somnath, located in Gujarat's southwest, is also known as Patan Somnath and is home to Somnath Temple, which is believed to be the first among the 12 jyotirlinga shrines of Lord Shiva.

The Somnath Railway Station will be redeveloped on the architectural design of the Shree Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple and is planned to be completed in a span of two years.

3. Puri

The RLDA has planned integrated development of Puri station at an estimated cost of Rs 161.51 crore. Puri Railway Station is a terminating station of Khurda Road Division of East Coast Railway in Indian Railway. Puri is the abode of Lord Jagannath and a major district of Odisha.

The proposed new station building will be disaster resilient and capable of withstanding wind speeds of up to 250 km per hour in view of the cyclone vulnerability of the facility. Puri station had suffered massive damage during Cyclone Fani that hit coastal Odisha on 3 May 2019.

4. Ernakulum

The work has commenced at the Ernakulam Junction and Ernakulam Town railway stations to redevelop them as world-class stations by the end of 2024 under a Rs 669 crore project. Tenders for the projects had been awarded earlier this year.

Earlier, it was planned to redevelop the stations through PPP mode by the RLDA, but, later on, the construction wing of the Indian Railways took up the task of redevelopment of the stations.

Ernakulam Junction is the biggest railway station in the city of Kochi in Kerala and also the busiest railway junction station in south India. The facade of the new structures will have Kerala-style architecture in synchrony with the green landscape of the state.

5. Udhna

Udhna Railway Station in Surat district of Gujarat is undergoing up-gradation at a cost of Rs 199.02 crore and is scheduled to be ready by June 2024.

Last year, the Indian Railways Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) had invited bids through RFQ to redevelop Udhna Railway stations. With IRSDC being abruptly shut down in October 2021, the project has been handed over to Zonal Railways.

6. Gaya

The East Central Railway (ECR) has invited bids for major upgradation of Gaya Railway Station in Bihar EPC mode. The estimated value of the project is Rs 248.51 crore with completion period of 27 months.

Gaya is the second largest city in the state of Bihar and home to Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and ancient Buddhist temple.

Tenders floated

• A Rs 442 crore tender has already been floated by South Western Railways (SWR) to take up redevelopment of the Bengaluru Cantonment station on an EPC basis. Similarly, a Rs 330 crore EPC tender has been floated to redevelop the Yesvantpur station with airport-like facilities. The Prime Minister on 20 June 2022 laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the Bengaluru Cantonment and Yesvantpur Junction railway stations.

• South Central Railway (SCR) on 11 June floated a tender for the redevelopment of Secunderabad Railway Station in Hyderabad at an estimated cost of about Rs 653 crore. The redevelopment project will be executed in an EPC mode, with completion period of 36 months from the date of award of tender.

• The Prime Minister on 27 May laid the foundation stones for the redevelopment of five railway stations in Tamil Nadu — Chennai Egmore, Rameswaram, Madurai, Katpadi, and Kanyakumari. Redevelopment of the railway stations project will be completed at a cost of over Rs 1,800 crore.

In The Pipeline

Indian railways has invited tenders for 15 extra stations but they are not yet awarded. These are Lucknow (Rs 494 crore), Muzaffarpur (Rs 444 crore), Ghaziabad (Rs 337 crore), Gwalior (Rs 545 crore) , Dakaniya Talav (Rs 124 crore), Kanyakumari (Rs 67 crore), Kollam (Rs 348 crore), Nellore (Rs 91 crore), Bhubaneswar (Rs 308 crore), New Jalpaiguri (Rs 353 crore), Kota (Rs 232 crore), Udaipur City (Rs 358 crore), Faridabad (Rs 264 crore), Jammu Tawi (Rs 262 crore) and Jalandhar Cantt (Rs 100 crore).

In addition to those 22 stations, the railways has recognised Delhi Cantt, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Rameswaram, Puducherry, Madurai, Katpadi, Sabarmati, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai Egmore, Jaisalmer, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Visakhapatnam, Surat, and New Bhuj stations for redevelopment under the identical EPC formulation.