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Rlys. plan to exploit lands through tie-up with HUDCO

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Feb. 25

INDIAN Railways is set to commercially exploit surplus railway land in seven corridors to start off with under a tie-up with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).

This will provide substantial additional funds to railways for developmental activities, the Railway Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, has said. Plans are also on to commerically utilise air space.

The railways will also raise funds through commercial publicity on passenger trains, wagons and at stations besides hoardings and bill-boards and by commercial publicity on tickets.

The earnings projections through commercial exploitation of land and air space made in this year's budget is Rs. 150 crores.

The MoU which the railways has signed with HUDCO covers several areas of assistance.

Some of the corridors which have been identified for commercial utilisation are Delhi-Panipat, Kanpur-Lucknow, Bangalore-Mysore, Sealdah -Kalyani, Chandigarh-Ludhiana, Baroda-Ahmedabad and Vishakapatnam-Rajamundry.

The plan of the railways to raise resources through other non-traditional means include hoardings for rural marketing alongside the tracks and hoardings and bill-boards at level crossing gates.

The railways is also in the process of firming up a plan for the construction of one hundred budget hotels and shopping complexes near different stations using surplus commercial land.

The Task Force set up by the railways for generating additional resources through non-traditional means had suggested that in the case of vacant land owned near stations or elsewhere in cities, straight bids could be invited from a builder or a developer . They could then quote a lump sum premium followed by monthly rental charges for the period of the lease which could be for 31, or 51 or 99 years.

In the case of land comprising stations and adjoining areas, development could take place by constructing underground market and overhead buildings which can be used for market, office or hotels, the task force report said.

The recommendations will be implemented in a time-bound manner.