The Indian Railways and South Central Railway estimates that it would require ₹282 crore for redeveloping Secunderabad railway station into a world class station with separate arrivals and departures, roofing/flooring, food courts, clean toilets and shopping experiences.
About 5.62 acre of space in and around the station and 96,243 sq. metres of the main building has been thrown open for the private sector to invest in commercial real estate development like office space, malls, cinemas and others under the public, private partnership mode with bids invited online. Similarly, ₹194 crore was the estimated cost for redeveloping the Vijaywada railway station, including 7.87 acres of land and 61,000 sq. metres of the main building and the last date for submission of bids is May 24, informed SCR General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav on Thursday.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had, on Wednesday, kicked off the first phase of redeveloping 23 stations across the country and Secunderabad and Vijayawada stations have been chosen from the SCR. The bid papers were posted online for Secunderabd on Thursday on the department website, he said at a press conference here on Thursday. “It’s an ambitious programme and we are trying it for the first time what airports did more than a decade ago. We are looking at the private players partnering with us to improve passenger amenities and also provide us some revenue by developing real estate,” he said.
Mr. Yadav expects the financial and technical bids to be finalised within six months of receiving the offers from the private sector to be chosen by modified version of Swiss Challenge Method. The Ministry had already come out with a manual for standards and specifications indicating the quality of work expected and even for bidding – 60% is for quality and 40% for cost estimates.
A dozen stations in the SCR (yet to be chosen) of the 100 across the country were to be identified for the bids in the second phase to be called in June/July and bids for redeveloping another 22 stations out of 250 would be called by the year-end.
The GM asserted that the railway operations continue to be with the Ministry and it was only the amenities which would be modernised by the private sector players who would be given 45-year lease of property. “We have held discussions with the relevant Central and State departments for this project,” he said.
