Bidding for Delhi railway redevelopment scrapped

Railway Ministry's ambitious project of transforming New Delhi station into a world class one has fallen flat on its face with the civic authorities refusing permission for the mega project.

With this, the second bidding process for the station's re-development has also collapsed, informed sources in the Railway Ministry said.

"In the absence of clearance from the civic authorities, the request for qualification (RFQ) bids sought 10 months ago for all practical purpose stands cancelled," the sources said.

The objections from the NDMC, MCD, DDA and Delhi Traffic police were basically related to traffic given the station's close proximity to Connaught Place, parking and sewerage problems, they said.

The world class station would have come over 86 hectares of land at an estimated cost of Rs 9,000 crores on PPP mode complete with a shopping complex, separate entry and exit points and all other modern amenities.

However, they said that plan for other stations which railways has earmarked for transformation into world class would go ahead.

Recently an expert committee on railways headed by Amit Mitra had suggested "optimal utilisation of the space with small inputs in the station to raise it to world class standards".

Now it is to be seen whether railways accepts the proposal and goes for the station's development at a much smaller scale.