The Hindu Business Line : Railways plans world class touch for select stations

Total facelift
Howrah, Chennai, Anand Vihar, Mathura and Patna would be taken up for development in Phase I
Each station will have a technical consultant who will work on a concept plan and feasibility report.

Kolkata March 29 Indian Railways is planning to adopt the prevailing international best practices (for infrastructure projects) for converting select railway stations in the country into world class ones, and accordingly it has been decided to appoint separate technical, financial and legal consultants.

Some 19 railway stations, with as many as seven in the Northern Railway system alone, in the entire Indian Railways system have been selected for total facelift into world class stations.

It is learnt that pre-qualification of bidders for development of station terminals may begin soon after finalisation of PPP models. Tender invitation is expected to follow soon thereafter.

Informed railway sources told Business Line that in the first phase, some five stations, namely Howrah (ER), Chennai (SR), Anand Vihar (Northern Railway), Mathura (NCR) and Patna (ECR) would be taken up for development at the Rail Board level. Each station undergoing the makeover will have a technical consultant who will work on a concept plan and feasibility report.

The financial and legal consultants, it is learnt, may be common for all five stations.

While the financial consultant will develop the PPP (public-private partnership) models, prepare business plans and bid documents, the legal consultant is expected to review the provisions in various Acts and Rules, draft concession agreement and assist the financial consultants.

Sources said the legal advisor might be common for both the world-class station projects and the proposed agri retail chain projects at railway stations.

Nodal officers

Zonal railways are expected to appoint two officers one each in disciplines such as traffic and engineering for each station project, to act as nodal officers in charge of that station, for making available field data, and supervising the preparation of conceptual plan and monitoring of bidding process.

They are also expected to identify and demarcate areas around the station which would be offered to the technical consultant for preparation of the Concept Plan.

Besides two stations in the SR system (Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram), some of the others would be Ahmedabad, Secunderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Bhopal and CST Mumbai (Camac Bunder) and Pune.

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