New Delhi Railway Station to undergo Rs 5,000 crore redevelopment; bids to be submitted by May

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) will shortlist bidders for Rs 5,000 crore New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment by the end of next month. The shortlisted bidders will be asked to put in a request for participation (RFP), or the financial bid for the project, by May this year. The government hopes to begin construction of the project by December this year.

A railway ministry source told BusinessToday.In, "We are in the process of finalising the bidders from among the Request for Qualifications (RFQs) that we have received. By the end of March, we will shortlist bidders for financial bidding. Financial bids will be called from the shortlisted bidders by late April or May after which they will be evaluated."  

A total of nine bidders have submitted RFQ for the New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment plan, which envisages redevelopment of the station at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. The government plans to complete the New Delhi railway station redevelopment in the next four years.

The RFQs were opened by the RLDA on February 16. According to the authority, nine global and domestic companies have submitted the RFQ for redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway station.

Arabian Construction Company, Adani Railways Transport Ltd, BIF IV India Infrastructure Holding Pvt Ltd, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments Pte Ltd, Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited, Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd, GMR Highways Limited, Omaxe Limited, and Elpis Ventures Pvt Ltd have submitted the RFP.

Being asked about the development, RLDA Vice-Chairman Ved Prakash Dudeja told BusinessToday.In that the process is on, but did not share a timeline on the submission of the financial bids.  Dudeja, however, said that the construction of the New Delhi station redevelopment will begin by the end of this calendar year. "The construction will begin by December," he said.

Sharing details on the other upcoming railway station redevelopment projects, Dudeja said, "We have opened the RFQs for Tirupati railway station development, Dehradun, Puducherry and Nellore. RFQ for redevelopment of Ernakulam railway station is to be opened. Lucknow and Puri are in the pipeline for RFQ."

RLDA is currently working on 62 railway stations across the country. RFQ for Faridabad, Gaya and Panipat will also be invited in three weeks. Dudeja said that no land is needed to be acquired for the New Delhi project as the requisite land is available with the department.

"The project involves development of the railway station as well as the railway station estate for a concession period of sixty years. The railway station will be on licence to the developer, wherein opportunities like retail, food and beverages, and kiosks could be utilised as the station offers an assured footfall of about half a million passengers daily. Real estate opportunity such as development of hotel, and offices, leveraging the excess floor area ratio is also clubbed in the redevelopment plan," Dudeja added.  

"New Delhi station will be redeveloped into a world-class station in line with global standards with dome-shaped terminal buildings with 2-Arrival and 2-Departure at the concourse level, two Multi-Modal Transport Hubs (MMTH) on its every side, 40-floor high-rise twin towers (with hotel/offices and retail at podium) and pedestrian boulevard with high-street shopping among the salient features of the proposed development," RLDA said in a release earlier.

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