Indian Railways to levy ‘user fees’ at redeveloped, high footfall stations

The Indian Railways will soon start levying ‘user fees’ for stations that are being redeveloped and those whose footfall is expected to increase, Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said on Thursday, PTI reported. The additional charges will generate revenue to provide better facilities for passengers, the chairman said.

The fee will be charged not on all the 7,000 railway stations across the country, but on about 10-15% of them, where the footfall is expected to increase.

On the amount that’ll be charged, Yadav said “We are going to keep a very small amount for the user charge. We will issue a notification for the user charge for all stations including both those that are getting redeveloped and those that are not.”

“When the redevelopment of the stations gets completed, the money will go to the concessionaires. Till then that money will go to the railways for improving facilities across stations. It will be an affordable amount, but it is important to levy if we want to provide world-class facilities similar to the airport development. We want to upgrade all our major railway stations,” he added, PTI reported.

The Railways has plans to redevelop 50 railway stations and monetize its land. The redeveloped hubs will be called ‘Railopolis’, according to the Railways. It will lease the land out for 60 years for commercial purposes.

“We want Railways to drive India’s growth story. In countries like Japan and South Korea, the growth story was also driven by railway infrastructure. We are confident that going forward, the railways will contribute 1-2% towards India’s growth,”  said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, PTI reported.

The policy think-tank Niti Aayog had earlier in October pulled up the Railways for delayed implementation of the Centre’s plans for the redevelopment of stations.

Niti Aayog had recommended an empowered group of top bureaucrats to develop 50 stations on a priority basis.

The scheme was first announced in 2016 to redevelop 400 stations. 

The Indian Railway Station Redevelopment Corporation Ltd (IRSDC) is the implementing agency of the station redevelopment project.

It has handed over two railway stations — Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhinagar in Gujarat — to private parties for development under public-private partnership plans.

While 94.05% of the work is complete at the Gandhinagar railway station, the project at Habibganj is now 90% complete. Both projects are expected to be ready by December 2020.

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Additionally, engineering, procurement and construction contracts have been awarded and commercial tenders floated for the development of three stations – Anand Vihar, Bijwasan and Chandigarh.

In December, last year, requests for qualification were invited for developing Amritsar, Nagpur, Gwalior and Sabarmati stations. Till June 26, 2020, 32 applications were received, out of which 29 have been shortlisted. 

The IRSDC has also taken up five stations for developing integrated facility management and 90 more are in the pipeline. The agency is now working on Mumbai’s CST station and the New Delhi Railway Station in the Capital.