Railways To Carry Out Techno-economic Feasibility Studies Of 10 Stations: Goyal

The government on Wednesday said that the railways will be carrying out the techno-economic feasibility studies for the redevelopment of six railway stations in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and one in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal said, "Buxar, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Rajendra Nagar railway stations in  the Bihar, Bokaro Steel City, Ranchi and Hatia stations in Jharkhand and Jammu Tawi station in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have been identified for conducting techno-economic feasibility studies towards redevelopment of stations."

He said that station redevelopment projects are generally taken up in a Public Private Participation (PPP) mode.

The Minister said that Indian Railways has planned for redevelopment of stations by leveraging real estate potential of land that can be spared and air space in and around the stations.

He said that railway conducts techno-economic feasibility studies of stations across the country and based on the outcome of these feasibility studies, stations are taken up for redevelopment in phases.

Goyal pointed out that the works of redevelopment of Habibganj and Gandhinagar railway stations are in an advanced stage of completion while works for the redevelopment of Gomti Nagar and Ayodhya stations are in progress.

The Minister said that requests for qualification (RFQ) have been finalised for right stations -- Nagpur, Amritsar, Sabarmati, Gwalior, Puducherry, Tirupati, Nellore and Dehradun.

He also said that the RFQ have been invited for three stations -- New Delhi, Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Ernakulam.