16 , May , 2020
Recently, The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) conducted an online pre-bid meeting regarding the Rs. 6,500 crore re-development of the New Delhi Railway Station, according to an RLDA press release. The online meeting was attended by more than 30 national and international consultancy firms, like ITALFERR from Australia, Louis Berger from the US, HAFEEZ Contractor, Tata Consulting and CP Kukreja.
During the meeting, all the queries put forth by the stakeholders were answered, and they were also encouraged to send any residual ones over mail, so that those could also be resolved. The project is expected to be completed in 4 years from date of tenders being awarded and will cover 110 acres of land for development, the release stated.
On March 11, the RLDA invited bids from interested parties for the selection of suitable consultancy firms to provide their services for feasibility studies, urban designing, detailed master planning, engineering and preparation of the detailed planning report (DPR), for the revamp of the NDLS Railway Station. At the moment, the tender is scheduled to be awarded in the first week of June this year.
The release quoted RLDA Vice-Chairman Ved Prakash Dudeja stating that the revamping of NDLS is one of their ambitious projects, and said that the organisation is committed to ensure that the operations take place seamlessly, by extensive use of digital technology. He further informed that online tenders would be opening soon.
The RLDA is a statutory authority under the Union Ministry of Railways, and it has been entrusted with the re-development of the NDLS Railway Station to include state-of-the-art infrastructure, public amenities and facilities. The revamping would be carried out via a private public partnership (PPP) model, along the lines of the revamping of another 60-odd railway stations across the country.
The revamping would focus on leveraging the potential of real estate development on the air space above the station as well as the railway land around it. The main aim is to provide high-class experience to the passengers, similar to that in airports, and to transform these stations into iconic standards, by using a self-sustainable model along with the Smart City Projects of the Government of India. The cost of the revamping would be met by commercial development of the airspace and spare land in and around the station.
