Indian Railways

Railway stations could boost real-estate

4:55 PM

Railway stations could boost real-estate


Indian Railways is among the top three largest land­owners in the country, other than defence and ports and it is this that the railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, has sought to exploit.

Seeking to tap this large asset base to help make it a more commercially viable and reliable service provider, he has embarked on a mission to re-develop railway stations, brand them with corporate participation and also tap the advertising potential of the available space.

According to him, Railways has attempted redevelopment of stations, without much success so far. While the process for development of the already selected stations would continue, for the rest of the stations, the minister proposes to revamp the station redevelopment policy completely and simplify processes for faster redevelopment by inviting open bids from interested parties.

The present stations will be available for development on “as is where is” basis, to exploit the space and air rights on concession basis. Land will not be sold.

Most railway terminals located in big cities are located amidst congested areas. According to railway plans, ten select stations will be taken up in 2015-16 for this purpose. “The move will not only help them create value, but also give a boost to the economy and higher revenues for the railways. It is an old theme but the railways have not been really pro-active in doing that and there was a general lack of transparency in the past,” says Lalit Kumar Jain, chairman, Credai.

Anuj Puri, chairman & country head, JLL India, feels the decision to go in for “station redevelopment” and “logistic parks” in this railway budget will have a deep and positive impact on the commercial real estate front. Transit-oriented development is the new global watchword when it comes to infrastructure and commercial real estate development.

Says Tanaji Chakravorty, urban economist, “It is significant that the railway budget has highlighted the aspect of station redevelopment policy and looked at it in the context of using station redevelopment as means to encourage inner city re-generation.

“While there are several examples of such models globally (for instance London saw Liverpool Street Station and King Cross regeneration among many others), such projects are fairly long term and multi-stakeholder partnership initiatives, allowing for re-energising inner city dynamics. Even though in India, examples of such comprehensive station linked regeneration has been limited, the potential understandably is vast.’’

States Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Realty, “It has been the right and timely strategy for leveraging partnership with states, local civic bodies like municipalities and private sector and other stakeholders towards gaining access to long-term financing and technology and building railway infrastructure and modernising station development. Private sector would lap it up.”


- by D Govardan (With inputs from Ritwik Mukherjee, Jharna Mazumdar and B Krishna Mohan)

Source :- Financial Chronicle

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1 comments

  1. Thanks for sharing such a nice piece of information about Indian railways, the system has evolved a lot. One can easily check their PNR status online easily.

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