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Mamuni Das

Indian Railways has brought forward the last date of financial bidding in the new tender for the Rs 12,000-crore New Delhi railway station modernisation project to March 2009 from the earlier plan of June 2009.

The companies in race for the project include GVK, Larsen & Toubro, DLF and Maytas Infra. Railways’ official stand on this decision is that most of the ground work was covered in the earlier bidding process (which was scrapped). However, sources indicate that the due date was brought forward to ensure that the project takes off during the present dispensation. The present Government completes its five years of rule in May 2009.

The New Delhi railway station is being modernised on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer model. The railways had cancelled the earlier tender, which had reached the request for qualification (RFQ) stage, following confusion in interpretation of the ‘cross-ownership’ clause in the tender document.

Thirteen bidders had put in request for qualification (RFQ) applications for the project. They include Sadbhav Engineering and SREI Infrastructure; Gammon Infrastructure and Emaar-MGF; Larsen and Toubro; DLF, ITNL (IL&FS Transportation Networks) and AWB Infrastructure; Maytas Infra and VIE; Indiabulls Real Estate and GS Engineering, Reliance Infrastructure and Aeropuertus y servicious; GVK with Mitsui and Leighton; KMC Constructions and China Railways 18th Bureau Group; DB Realty and Deutsche Bahn.

The Railways has stated that the indicative present day capital cost of the project is Rs 12,000 crore, which includes mandatory capital expenditure, the real estate development for commercial purposes and interest during construction.

In the earlier tender, a clause specified that bidders with common controlling shareholders or other ownership interest cannot compete as it could lead to ‘conflict of interest’. It said that the levels of direct or indirect shareholding by an entity in one bidder should not be over five per cent of its paid-up capital and subscribed capital, and more than one per cent in another bidder.

When this rule was applied to the investments of private financial institutions in various bidders, several bidders faced disqualification. Many of the bidders were listed entities and financial institutions are free to buy stake in them from the stock exchange. Thus, the stake of private financial institutions would also vary from time to time.

The Railway Ministry had approached the Finance Ministry for its views on the issue. The Finance Ministry — while specifying that bidders should not be disqualified if private financial institutions have a ‘de-minimis’ stake in them —had indicated its preference for re-tendering.

Spread over 86 hectares, the station currently handles an average 3.5 lakh passengers a day, with around 256 trains, including 78 suburban trains, arriving and departing from 12 platforms. The railways hopes that a redeveloped station will be able to handle five lakh passengers a day in normal days and seven lakh passengers a day in peak season.

The design plan submitted by Hong Kong-based consultancy Terry Farrell calls for redevelopment of the station as a three-level terminal building with segregated areas for arrivals and departures.

This will free up the platform area exclusively for boarding and alighting from trains. The modernisation work will also see the number of platforms on the station go up to 18, against the current 12. Parcel handling will be decentralised in an underground area.

More Stories on : Railways | Modernisation

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