In
the august presence of Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in a
programme held today at Rail Bhawan today i.e. 14th July,
2016 an agreement was signed between Indian Railway Stations Development
Corporation Limited and Bansal Group for the redevelopment and modernization of Habibganj Railway Station located in Bhopal, M.P. The Habibganj
station would now be the first station to be redevelopment and this station is
one of the eight such railway stations which have been allocated to IRSDC by
the Ministry of Railways. Minister of State for Railways & Minister of State for
Communication (Independent Charge) Shri Manoj
Sinha was specially present to grace the occasion. Chairman, Railway Board,
Shri A. K. Mital, Member Engineer Shri A.K. Mittal and other Railway Board
Members, several other dignitaries and senior officials were among those
present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister
of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that this is a historic moment
for the Indian Railways to witness this ceremony as it is a result of
persistent hard work of the Railway Officers. He said that these days Indian
Railways is in real need of revenue as the two source of revenue i.e. passenger
fares and freight are not sufficient. He said that today’s agreement will also
improve the economic condition of the railway as commercial space available on
the modernized station will bring revenue for the Railways. He said that many
more stations redevelopment are in pipeline such as Surat, Gandhinagar(Gujarat)
and Bijwasan & Anand Vihar (Delhi) in collaboration with the State
Governments. He said that revamped railway stations will make the people of
this country proud as well as it will generate revenue for the Railways.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister
of State for Railways & Minister of State for Communication (Independent
Charge) Shri Manoj Sinha said that railway is an organization which first has
to earn to provide facilities to its passengers. He said that Railways has
given directions to complete the station redevelopment work as soon as possible
so that the passengers can avail world class facilities. He said that a
passenger’s travel experience right from the beginning of purchasing tickets
and getting out of the railways station needs to be development. In a few
months Railway is planning to have 20-30 such agreements.
Salient Features of the Agreement
The Indian Railways
Station Development Corporation (IRSDC), which has been entrusted to execute
the ambitious Railway Station development/redevelopment projects of the
Ministry of Railways (MoR), has made a swift progress in processing the
appointment of a Developer for the modernization of Habibganj Railway Station,
located in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh.IRSDC issued the Letter of
Acceptance (LoA) on 7.06.2016 to the selected bidder, a consortium of M/s
Bansal Construction Works Pvt. Ltd and M/s Prakash Asphalting & Toll
Highways (India) Ltd. The consortium has formed a Special Purpose Company named
M/s Bansal Pathways Habibganj Pvt Ltd which will implement this project. The Habibganj station development project is one of the eight
such railway stations, which have been allocated to IRSDC by the MoR.
Hon’ble Prime Minister and
the Minster of Railways have time and again highlighted the need to redevelop
and modernize Railway Station infrastructure across the country. To achieve
this objective, the Ministry of Railways have assigned Chandigarh,Shivaji Nagar
(Pune), Bijwasan (New Delhi), Anand Vihar (New Delhi), Surat (Gujrat), SAS
Nagar (Mohali) and Gandhi Nagar (Gujrat) Railway stations to IRSDC for
development/redevelopment.It is expected that some additional stations will be
entrusted to IRSDC in the current financial year 2016-17.
Habibganj Railway station,
is the first station to be redeveloped through Public Private Partnership (PPP)
route under the station redevelopment program of Indian Railways.The total
estimated cost of station redevelopment is Rs. 100 Crores, whereas the
estimated cost of commercial development is approximately, Rs. 350 Crores.
IRSDC has hired the services of leading legal, financial and architectural
consultants to operationalize this project. Leading Law Firm
ShardulAmarchandMangaldas& Co are the legal consultants, Global Advisory Firm
Ernst & Young LLP are the financial consultants and Transaction Advisors,
whereas Consortium of M/s GMP International GmbH - Germany +
Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt. Ltd –India are
the technical and architectural consultants for this project. Extensive project
development activities, involving all the stakeholdershave been carried out by
IRSDC. All the necessary and required approvals such as, planning &
development authorities, environment & forest, airport authority, mining,
railways, traffic, utilities provider etc are in place. The Govt of Madhya
Pradesh has been very supportive in facilitating all clearances which has made
Habibganj as the first station in the country to reach this stage.This has
given the much needed confidence to the private sector to undertake first such
station redevelopment work in the country.
The Developer is mandated
to complete the construction of Railway station within three years and after
the redevelopment there will be dedicated approach roads along-with municipal
roads to ensure easy ingress/exit along with convenient parking provisions,
without any traffic congestion in the city roads. It is planned that analogous
to the modern airports, Habibganj Railway station will have dedicated pick up
and drop off parking facilities for station users. To avoid any congestion or
confusion, there will be complete segregation between arriving and departing
passengers. The station also will be easily accessible to differently abled
passengers. Safety of passengers and other users of the station have also been
kept in mind. The station will comply with NFPA (National Fire Protection Act)
to mitigate any such fire mishap at a public place.In case of an emergency, the
station premises is planned to be evacuated within 4 minutes and passengers can
reach the respective designated points of safety in 6 minutes. The station will
also promote the use of environment friendly practices. To ensure cleaner
energy from renewable and non-conventional energy, provisions for solar energy
generation will be provided in the station premises. Enough catering/food
stalls and public conveniences at affordable rates are designed to be at places
easily accessible to both on-board and travelling passengers.
The development of the
Habibganj railway station into a world class railway station will act as a
boost tothe process of overhauling the Railway station infrastructure across
the country via PPP route. This will also provide the much needed impetus for accelerating
private sector participation in development of railway infrastructure in the
country. Successful planning and implementation of this project will go a long
way in realising the Hon’ble PM’s vision of revamping the country’s
infrastructure and changing the Indian Railways landscape in the country
forever.
After the station is redeveloped the following additional amenities
would beprovided.
1. Lifts : 6
nos.
2. Escalators : 11
nos.
3. Travellators : 3
nos.
4. Pedestrian
Subway :
(i) Parcel
Corridor : 1
no.
(ii) Subways : 2
nos.(66 Mx4 M)
5. Surface
Parking : 14037
Sqm (Parking for 284 Cars, 839 Two Wheelers & 5 Buses)
6. Landscaping : 6778
Sqm
7. Concourse : 84m
X 36m=3024 Sqm.
8. Walkway : 47
M x15M=705 Sqm.
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VP/MKV/DK