NBCC to redevelop 10 smart railway stations across the country

NBCC CMD Dr AK Mittal

NBCC, a Navratna PSU, under the Ministry of Urban Development and Rail Land Development Authority Rail Land Development Authority today joined hands with National Building Construction Corporation for redevelopment of 10 railway stations across the country on global standards. The railways has embarked on an ambitious project to redevelop 403 stations with the participation of private players, public sector and foreign agencies. The identified stations...
to be taken up initially by NBCC for redevelopment are Tirupati, Sarai Rohilla (Delhi), Nellore, Puducherry, Madgaon, Lucknow, Gomtinagar, Kota, Thane (New), and Ernakulam. An MoU was signed between RLDA, an arm of the Railways for commercial exploitation of rail land, and NBCC for implementation of Smart Station redevelopment projects for the 10 identified stations.
Speaking on the occasion, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the Railways has taken up this programme of station redevelopment in a big way, adopting a multi-pronged strategy to accomplish the mammoth task. "We have chosen PPP model and are roping in varied agencies to execute the project namely Railways' own PSUs, other Central government PSUs, foreign countries through government-to-government cooperation and state governments,” the railway minister said.
Urban development ministry, which had launched a mega project of developing 100 cities as smart cities, joined the Railways in redeveloping stations as smart stations.
Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, "It is a very good idea to develop smart stations along with the smart cities".  Once the stations are redeveloped, the passengers will get facilities of world standard. NBCC has now been given 10 stations in first phase for redevelopment and more stations would be given to them in subsequent phases.
RLDA and NBCC shall form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the form of a joint venture company to execute the station redevelopment project. The JV shall redevelop the stations on a self-financing model. Earlier in October 2016, an MoU was signed between the ministries of railways and urban development for integrated planning for redevelopment of railway stations in the cities included in the Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT schemes.
Talking to the media after the signing event, Dr. Anoop Kumar Mittal, CMD, NBCC informs that the stations shall be developed on PPP model and self-sustaining finance model through commercial exploitation of vacant Railways land. He further said, the commercial use of built-up space and air space over tracks shall be leased out for a period of 45/60 years and added that redevelopment of station buildings would comprise an iconic structure with modern state of Art facilities, Passenger Lounges, Congestion free non-conflicting Entry and Exit to Station premises. Commercial space development would include business centre, offices, studio apartments, restaurants, hotels and social infrastructure. NBCC has also signed another MoU on the same day subsequently, with South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) for construction of the latter’s new headquarter Building at I.P. Estate, New Delhi. The CMD said that the SDMC Building valuing approximately Rs. 525 Crore would also be a state-of- the-art Green Building structure to be implemented by NBCC incorporating maximum Green features. He further added that the Headquarter Building would be a modern steel and glass building and would open up its view to the River Yamuna. The two-level basements with seamless connectivity with city tunnel shall be another value addition, he said.