IRCON and RLDA inked Memorandum of Understanding to develop Railway Stations

Heads of the two Public Sector Undertakings, IRCON International Limited and Rail Land Development Authority on 1 February 2012 inked the Memorandum of Understanding to set up the Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited. The MoU was signed in the presence of Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Minister of State for Railway K.H. Muniyappa.

The corporation was set up to develop the more functional and customer oriented stations in the country at par global standard. The objective was underlined was to have modern stations which would be very functional, customer oriented and well equipped with proper circulation area and railway operation facilities.

In Rail budget 2011-12 the rail minister had made announcement for developing 50 railways stations In India as per international standards through public-private partnership venture. The Vision 2020 document had stated that Indian rail stations lagged behind those in the advanced countries and the stations located in major metropolitan cities were found to be ill-equipped to handle growing passenger traffic.

The corporation in its first phase would carry out the works like solving congestion problem and improving the ambience. After the successful completion of first phase the corporation would be assigned with the second phase of work which will consist of development of modern amenities.

The Corporation will help develop railway stations as vibrant centres of the life of cities for commerce, entertainment and social space.

Provision of well designed concourses, high quality waiting spaces, easy access to the platforms, congestion free platforms, modern ‘State of the art’ catering facilities, Hotels and other facilities for the unidentified station were also proposed under the new SPV. The redeveloped stations would be disabled passenger friendly and would have provision for convenient entry, inter platform transfer and easy access to all the facilities for the physically disabled persons and senior citizens. The stations would also be provided with waste disposal facilities to improve hygiene and cleanliness.

Association of State Governments and City Administrations was proposed by the rail authorities for the development of the stations and areas around in an integrated and holistic manner.

The proposed SPV will work on the provision of the amenities in a cost neutral manner by utilizing the real estate potential of the land and air space in the stations.