The ministry of railways is going full steam ahead with its plans to redevelop and modernise nearly 1,300 railway stations under the Amrit Bharat scheme, and will earmark Rs 13,000 crore from its FY24 capex outlay for this project, up 240% year-on-year.
According to a senior official, the ministry hopes to “initiate, if not complete, most of the work on the project in this fiscal year itself.” The official added: “The Amrit Bharat station scheme to redevelop 1,275 stations is being taken up on a priority basis this fiscal year. About 15 railway stations in every division have been identified and at least the small ones will be upgraded during the course of the year.” The scheme was announced late last year.
Instead of the public private partnership route, which hasn’t made major headway, despite many innovations in the concession models, the ministry intends to use its own capex for revamp of stations. The current year’s capex allocation for the project will mark a sharp jump from Rs 3,824 crore in FY23 and Rs 1,996 crore in FY22.
“The PPP route has not worked in terms of railway station modernisation in the past,” the official noted. Land parcels around the stations will be monetised by leasing them out to private players for development for commercial use. “It is envisaged that these land parcels will also become a source of revenue in coming years once the stations are redeveloped,” the official said.
Master plans are being prepared for each of these stations and the upgradation will include improved customer amenities such as improvement of accessibility to stations, toilets, lifts and escalators as necessary, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks/stalls for selling local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’ as well as constructing executive lounges. Access to the station buildings will be improved and roof top redevelopment may be taken up wherever possible.
The railway’s capex outlay has seen sharp increases in recent years. The current year’s outlay of Rs 2.6 trillion is up 6% over Rs 2.45 trillion spent in FY23, while in the year before, the spend was Rs 1.9 trillion. Another feature of the capex pattern is the big jump in budgetary component of the capex, with the current year’s outlay of Rs 2.4 trillion being 51% higher than last year’s.
The redevelopment of larger stations such as Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and the New Delhi railway station are also part of the project. Earlier this month, Ahluwalia Contracts was awarded the `2,450 crore re-development of CSMT by Rail Land Development Authority.
However, the bids for the New Delhi railway station have been cancelled and the railways will call for fresh bids shortly. Sources said fresh bids will be invited after understanding why the prices quoted were much higher than railway ministry’s estimates. The process could take about two to three months before fresh bids are invited.