Chennai: Chennai Central is one among the 35 railway stations across India that would be redeveloped in phase I of a project involving redevelopment of 414 stations on a public-private partnership basis.
Recently, the railway ministry identified 414 stations across the country for redevelopment, of which 50 are in the Southern Zone. Phase I of the plan consists of the redevelopment of 35 of these stations – including Chennai Central and Calicut in the Southern Railway – for which bids have been called from interested private players, said a railway official.
In the Southern Railway zone, there are 27 stations in Tamil Nadu, 21 in Kerala and 2 in Karnataka that have been proposed to be redeveloped under this initiative.
“We have identified surplus land near these stations that would be exploited by the private parties for revenue. The onus of providing facilities and amenities like food stalls, teas shops, commercial establishments will lie with the private player,” said A.K. Sinha, Chief Planning and Development Engineer, Southern Railway.
Railways will offer land for redevelopment while the work will have to be taken up by private firms. Railway officials added that specifications have been laid out and private players will have to implement features like solid waste management, rainwater harvesting, solar power emission and maintenance of green spaces have to be maintained along with having commercial establishments.
According to Sinha, with plans and estimates being laid out, the project is in an advanced stage and bids will be called for the same soon. “We are also working on a three-level parking that is going to come up at the Central Square along with CMRL. The parking will be able to accommodate over 500 cars as per the current plan,” he said while speaking at CII Chennai Infra conference about multimodal transport integration at Chennai Central, which would integrate metro rail, suburban trains, MRTS, long-distance trains, and buses.
