Indian Railways plans to generate around Rs 8,000 crore through commercial development of land parcels across the country as the public carrier aims to bolster revenues to finance its modernisation plans.
The Railways has identified 49 sites measuring 497.21 hectares for commercial development, according to a Moneycontrol report.
"There are many areas near railway stations, workshops, colonies which are lying unused and as per plan, these sites would be commercially developed," the report quoted a railway ministry official as saying.
For commercial exploitation of multiple unused land parcels, the Railways has already formed a Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA).
"Currently, 49 sites measuring 497.21 hectares have been entrusted to Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) for commercial development. Likely revenue from these sites will be in the range of Rs 7000 crore to Rs 8000 crore," the report quoted the official as saying.
Apart from these sites, a few more sites have also been identified for commercial use.
Notably, the Railways has 4.62 lakh hectares of land out of which 4.15 lakh hectares are used for its operations. The rest land parcels of around 46,333 hectares remain unused and the public carrier is exploring various options of monetising these parcels through commercial development. As the Railways has embarked upon an ambitious modernisation plan, it needs additional resources to implement this plan.
According to the official, the Rail Land Development Authority selects a developer through the bidding process for commercial development of railway land. "At present, developer for only one site, Vishakhapatnam has been selected. This site will earn revenue of Rs 12.10 crore for a lease period of 30 years," the report said.
Apart from this plan, Indian Railways will also redevelop stations for which 28 major stations have already been identified.
