In a first-of-its-kind move to carry out work seamlessly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), an organisation under the Ministry of Railways, recently conducted an online pre-bid meeting for the redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station. The pre-bid meeting saw participation from over 30 national and international consultancy firms, namely ITALFERR (Australia) and Louis Berger, amongst others. Leading Indian players like Hafeez Contractor, Tata Consulting, CP Kukreja, etc. also participated in the pre-bid meeting. All queries of the stakeholders were answered on the spot through video conferencing and consultants were asked to send any other queries through mail upto May 4, and the same were to be answered by May 8.
On March 11, 2020, RLDA floated the request for proposal (RFP) inviting bids from suitable bidders for the selection of a consultancy firm providing consultancy services for the feasibility study, detailed master planning, urban designing, engineering and preparation of detailed project report (DPR), for the redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station of the Northern Railway. The tender as of now is scheduled to be awarded by the first week of June 2020.
“The re-development of the New Delhi Railway Station of the Northern Railway is one of our ambitious projects. We successfully conducted an online pre-bid meeting for the tender floated for selection of a consultancy firm, in which more than 30 consultancy firms participated. We are committed to ensuring seamless operations by extensive use of digital technology, and it was a great experience to have the first pre-bid meeting through video conferencing. Also, we will be starting the opening of online tenders shortly,” said Ved Parkash Dudeja, vice-chairman, Rail Land Development Authority.
Indian Railways has entrusted the New Delhi Railway Station of Northern Railway project to the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) for its redevelopment with state-of-the-art architecture, facilities and public amenities. This project is to be executed with private sector partnership by leveraging the real estate development potential in the air space above the station and on railway land around the station. The key objective of this project is to provide superior passenger services to railway passengers at stations and transform these stations into iconic standard-bearers of the cities, following the PPP model.
A total of 62 railway stations PAN India are being redeveloped by RLDA via a PPP model, using a self-sustainable model in synergy with smart city projects launched by the Government of India. The entire cost of redevelopment is to be met by leveraging commercial development of spare railway land/ airspace in and around the station.
The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is a statutory authority, under the Ministry of Railways, set-up by an Amendment to the Railways Act, 1989. It is responsible for the development of vacant railway land for commercial use for the purpose of generating revenue by non-tariff measures and creating assets for the Indian Railways. Currently, RLDA is working on four types of projects: commercial projects, multi-functional complex, colony redevelopment, and stations.
