10 Indian railway stations are going to be ‘smart’
Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has signed an MoU with National Building Construction Corporation Ltd on 30th June 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.
This information was given by Rajen Gohain, Minister of State of Railways, in Lok Sabha on 19th December 2018, while answering a question related to it.
Contracts have been awarded for redevelopment of Gomtinagar and Charbagh (Lucknow) railway stations. Bids have been invited for redevelopment of Puducherry and Tirupati stations.
Station redevelopment is planned by leveraging commercial development of land & 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 realized 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, i.e. station redevelopment project would be cost neutral to Railways.