On Friday, IRSDC under Indian Railways announced that it has invited bids for establishing and maintaining a ‘Rail Arcade’ at Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna and Chandigarh railway stations for a duration of nine years. The key objective of this initiative by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited is to offer best-in-class amenities to railway passengers as well as boost their travel experience. According to a PTI report, the Rail Arcade of Indian Railways is envisaged as a mini-city centre with various facilities including food and beverage, leisure, entertainment as well as retail. The move is a part of the corporation’s overall mandate to undertake the Facility Management of five railway stations across the country- Pune, KSR Bengaluru, Anand Vihar, Secunderabad and Chandigarh, IRSDC stated in a release.
This initiative’s hallmarks will include demand-oriented design, safety and security, excellent quality, innovative offerings, attractive revenue generation model as well as sustainability. According to IRSDC MD and CEO S K Lohia, the initiative will allow passengers to utilize their mundane time of waiting and turn it into leisure hours. Besides, they will look forward to visiting these railway stations, Lohia said. Rail Arcade, as an integrated facility, will fuel commercial activities and thus, it will be a formidable step in transforming stations of Indian Railways into a Railopolis, which is known to be an integrated mini smart city to ‘Work, Play and Ride’, the IRSDC MD added.
According to IRSDC, some of the major proposed facilities at the Rail Arcade include Passenger Convenience store, Food & Beverage (F&B), Books and Magazine, Gifts, Handloom and Artefacts, Consumer goods kiosks, including pharmaceutical and FMCG. The corporation further mentioned that the concessionaire will be mandated to take over the identified space as well as undertake the entire area’s remodeling for the development of commercial, entertainment and leisure space at the railway station. Shortly, the facility management of 90 more stations will be undertaken by IRSDC in a phased manner, the corporation added.