IRSDC’s planned and under redevelopment Railopolis hubs will become the true city centres, says Managing Director and CEO of IRSDC, S K Lohia.
Once complete, the Railopolis will be places where ‘people can live, work, play and ride,’ according to Lohia.
“These hubs will attract huge investment and business opportunities. With the application of Form-Based codes developed by IRSDC, the availability of public area in ‘Railopolis’ shall increase thus making such redeveloped railway stations as true city centres,” he added.
He was presenting IRSDC’s current and upcoming projects at a Rotary Club of Delhi webinar on 22nd August 2020.
Several key works in progress were covered:
- Projects under Execution- 2 (Habibganj and Gandhinagar);
- EPC Contracts awarded for Station Development- 3 (Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh);
- Commercial Development Tenders- 3 (Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh);
- RFQs invited– 4 (Amritsar, Nagpur, Gwalior and Sabarmati);
- Stations for Integrated Facility Management (FM)- 5 running, 90 more planned on PPP model; and
- 6 CPSEs engaged to act as PMC for 45 Stations.
During the webinar pioneering steps of IRSDC were shared, like Habibganj Railway Station will be the first station with world-class amenities under PPP mode, EPC tender of Gandhinagar Railway Station was accepted in 2017 and is the first five-star hotel right above the tracks, KSR Bengaluru is the first station which has been taken up by IRSDC for Facility Management in 2019 and the PPPAC approval for 4 stations (Nagpur, Gwalior, Amritsar and Sabarmati) in 2020.
Also noted were IRSDC’s key policy enablers
- IRSDC is the Planning & Approval Body for all Railway Station Redevelopment projects;
- In consultation with local bodies;
- Generally following National TOD policy; and
- No Change in Land Use required PAN India.
- IRSDC has started functioning as a deemed planning authority for railway projects; and
- MoEF has clarified that Station development projects with commercial development are exempted from prior Environment clearance subject to certain terms & conditions.
