The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has successfully conducted online pre-bid meetings for the redevelopment of railway stations in Nellore and Tirupati located in Andhra Pradesh.

The pre-bid meetings for Nellore and Tirupati witnessed participation from about 30 firms including GMR, Oberoi, Ambience, Adani Group, Godrej Properties, Reliance Infra, Sobha, Brigade, and Embassy Group, among others.

These redevelopment projects are in line with the Smart Cities Mission and aim at making Tirupati and Nellore multi-modal transit hubs endowed with state-of-the-art amenities, including differently-abled-friendly access ramps and elevators and green building features such as rainwater harvesting and solar energy generation.

The total cost of the projects is estimated at ₹130 crore and ₹510 crore for Nellore and Tirupati respectively, which include ₹53 crore and ₹230 crore for the cost of station development portion. The tender is scheduled to be awarded by mid-June 2020.

RLDA floated a Request for Proposal (RFP) inviting bids for the selection of a suitable public or private entity for re-development of Nellore and Tirupati railway stations.

Both stations will be redeveloped on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode on design, build, finance, operate, transfer (DBFOT) model.

“Amidst the lockdown induced by Covid-19, we conducted online pre-bid meetings for both Nellore and Tirupati successfully. This is in line with our commitment to ensure seamless operations during this unprecedented time. We have also started opening online tenders,” said Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice-Chairman, RLDA.

The Nellore project comprises three vacant Railway land parcels of total area 4.16 acre that will be used for commercial development as well as generating revenues by the developer. In case of Tirupati, the three-acre vacant Railway land parcel, which forms a part of this project, will be used for the said purpose.

The concession period for both projects under the Concession Agreement is 60 years, which implies that the concessionaire must operate and maintain the Railway station buildings and estate for 60 years.

Located on the banks Penna River in Andhra Pradesh, Nellore is well-connected with the southern and eastern parts of India through the Chennai-Howrah Railway line.

Designated as the ‘Best Heritage City’, Tirupati is located in the Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh, and is home to the famous Vaishnavite shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple.

RLDA is the nodal agency for redevelopment of railway stations across the Indian Railway network and the major Project Development Agency. A total of 62 railway stations across India will be re-developed by RLDA on PPP model as part of the Smart City Projects launched by the Government of India. The entire cost of re-development will be met by leveraging commercial development of spare railway land/airspace in and around the station.

RLDA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Railways having mandate for the development of vacant Railway land for commercial use. Currently, the Indian Railway has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land across India.

Related Topics