As the Indian Railways embarks on a mega station modernisation plan, standardised processes for seeking approvals from varied agencies are being firmed up.

Railway station redevelopment projects are under various stages of bidding. Top transport experts said while these standard processes would help speed up the time taken to get approvals for station redevelopment, clarity was needed on issues such as station user charges, having a regulator within a certain time frame and on a contract renegotiation mechanism.

For land owned by the Railways, the Rail Land Development Authority and the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) have been approved as agencies that can clear layout and building plans, applying the floor space index (FSI) based on the area abutting the railway stations, IRSDC CEO Sanjeev Lohia told BusinessLine . Stations can be designed in the best possible manner so that adjoining areas and roads were well integrated with redeveloped stations, maximising the revenue potential of commercial areas, he said.

This will facilitate government agencies or companies in getting their plans approved. Stations for which IRSDC approved the lay-out plans and/or building plans include Habibganj (Bhopal), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Chandigarh, Delhi and Safdarjung (New Delhi), which are being modernised, and Ajni (Nagpur), which is being redeveloped with an integrated transport facility.

Imbibing lessons from planners, architects, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs guidelines and national as well as international experiences, the IRSDC is putting forth a set of guidebooks, handbooks and codes/standards which will serve as the toolkit for developing stations and surrounding railway land on a commercial basis.

The corporation has invited feedback from various stakeholders on these proposed norms, Lohia said. It has got responses from the World Bank, French Railways, the Town and Country Planning Organisation (TCPO), National Institute of Urban Affairs and DDA, among others.

The IRSDC is also firming up an environment management plan for areas to be developed. The codes are being designed in such a manner that there will be about 300 per cent more green areas with the same built-up area, Lohia said. For various types of approvals, respective local bodies would have to be consulted for infrastructure facilities such as electricity, water supply and urban transport, he added.

While bidding progresses, transparency on issues such as station user charges, installing a regulator and its exact mandate would also lower the risk perception of investors.

Lohia said defined user charges or development fees (like the road sector) would do away with the need for an economic regulator (as it exists in the airport sector). But there may be a need for an overarching policy for all public private sector projects in all sectors to take care of unpredictable changes in macroeconomic conditions, he added.

“Defining user charges is important so that a few, successful, station development examples can be demonstrated. It will also attract other bidders. Private investors would like continuity... having such clarity upfront on user fee will help investors get approval from their investment boards as it will lower the risk weightage,” Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Practice Leader and Director, Transport and Logistics, CRISIL, told BusinessLine .

Padmanabhan said having a regulator upfront would be a better proposition. “However, given that the bidding process has started, one solution will be to provide the timeline for a regulator and also provide a broad framework on what the regulator will do. Regulator will have a binding point on what is doable, what is not doable.”

This, he added, should be the norm not just for station redevelopment but for other projects as well. “It’s better to bite the bullet upfront.”

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW