The Railway Land Development Authority has issued a fresh tender for the redevelopment of the New Delhi railway station. This is the fourth time that the RLDA has announced a tender for the project, The Indian Express reported.
Lack of coordination caused delay in project
A lack in coordination between the departments of the government and multiplicity of authorities in Delhi have reportedly hindered the project from going forward in the past.
Executive Director (Projects) of RLDA, Vivek Saxena, said this time the body has consulted over 12 central and state departments and has received no objection certificates from them for the project. RLDA will also be going ahead with an Engineering Procurement, and Consultation (EPC) contract instead of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) to ease the concern of potential commercial partners.
EPC contracts allow for greater control as there are not as many parties involved. In such contracts, a firm takes over the three main components of a project, namely engineering, procurement of material and construction, in order to ensure it is held accountable for the project. The project is then given to the other party which is assured that all the risks associated with the construction falls under the account of another party.
Previously, PPP has failed for the redevelopment project twice, in 2002-2003 and 2021.
The pre-bid meeting will take place on Jumy 20, while the bidding will end on July 29.
The NDLS redevelopment project
The plan was proposed once in 2002-2003 but it failed to get enough funds. It was to be a PPP project and the private players failed to gauge how to make returns for the sum the project demanded. Besides this, space that could be leased out to private players for commercial use was also found to be lacking.
Later in 2008-2009, after the formation of RLDA the project started to face administrative issues at the planning stage.
The revamped New Delhi railway station
The station after the lift will be spread across 1.5 crore square metre with a pedestrian path connecting the station to Connaught Place. It will also have a roof plaza which will have a shopping area and a food court. The platforms will only be used when passengers board or alight from a train.