Puri railway station to be redeveloped into world-class transit hub

By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: Puri railway station can be redeveloped right into a world-class transit hub to supply the best-in-class facilities to passengers and improve the journey expertise.

The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has invited bids for the redevelopment of the railway station. While the pre-bid assembly has been scheduled for July 15, the deadline for the bid submission is August 17.

The station can be constructed on Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Transfer Model (DBFOT) and the price of the challenge (excluding the price of redevelopment of station property) has been estimated at Rs 82 crore.

The work contains the up-gradation and built-in redevelopment of the railway station spanning 28,574 sq metre and the event of the encircling railway land.

The station can be developed as a multimodal transit hub consistent with worldwide requirements with segregation for entry and exit, baggage safety, check-in space, an data centre, and artwork gallery.

It may have provision for differently-abled, together with entry ramps, lifts, and tactile flooring. The mannequin station will even have inexperienced constructing options with sustainable and energy-efficient design, most use of pure gentle and air flow, rainwater harvesting, photo voltaic power era with a minimal GRIHA 3-star ranking.

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Puri railway station is a Non-Suburban Grade (NSG)-2 Category terminal station beneath the Khurda division of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) Zone. It is among the busiest stations with eight platforms dealing with 52 trains, together with mail, categorical, and passenger trains each day. Puri dealt with a each day footfall of 16,680 passengers in 2018-19.

Vice-Chairman of RLDA Ved Parkash Dudeja mentioned Puri is a historic metropolis and a famend vacationer hub. The redevelopment of the railway station will bolster tourism prospects and place it among the many main locations for spiritual tourism. The business improvement will even result in a surge in enterprise actions, increase actual property, and generate employment within the area, he mentioned.

RLDA has been mandated with the redevelopment of 60 railway stations in a phased method whereas its subsidiary Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) has taken up 62 different railway stations within the nation.

Indian Railways has roughly 43,000 hectares of vacant land throughout India. The RLDA is dealing with 100 business (greenfield) websites and 84 railway colony redevelopment initiatives. The eligible builders for every challenge can be chosen by an open and clear bidding course of.