Railways Offers Over Seven Acres For Commercial Development In Chennai

With the real estate projects involving station redevelopment gathering pace, Indian Railways has now undertaken steps to lease out land parcels adjoining rail premises in a big way.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has invited bids for leasing four land parcels cumulatively spanning 7.36 acres at an estimated cost of nearly Rs 65 crore in Chennai.

Two of the land parcels of 2.5 acres each are in the Ayanavaram Railway Colony, along Konnur High Road and Duncan Road. Two other land parcels are located at Walltax Road (0.27 Acres) and at Pulianthope (2.09 Acres).

The parcels shall be leased out for 45 years.

“Chennai has emerged as a real estate hotspot due to the growth of the IT/ITes sector, infrastructural developments and conducive policy landscape over the past few years. These sites possess excellent location and connectivity. The real estate development at these sites will bolster prices, generate employment opportunities and boost the local economy,” said RLDA Vice Chairman Ved Prakash Dudeja.

The lessees of these sites will be mandated to carry out development as per local building bye-laws and complete the developer portion within 10 years. The selected bidder will be required to procure all necessary clearances for the same. He/she will be permitted to market and sub-lease built-up area for any lawful activity.

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, has emerged as a prominent realty hub owing to the growth of the IT/ITes sector in the past few years.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Railways for the development of Railway land. It has four key mandates as part of its development plan, namely leasing of commercial sites, colony redevelopment, station redevelopment and multi-functional complexes.

Indian Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land across India. RLDA has over 84 commercial (Greenfield) sites across India for leasing, and the eligible developers for each will be selected through an open and transparent bid process.

RLDA is currently also handling 84 railway colony redevelopment projects and 62 Railway station redevelopment projects.

Meanwhile, works of redevelopment of Habibganj Railway station in West Central Railway and Gandhinagar Railway station in Western Railway are in advanced stage of completion.

Works for redevelopment of Gomti Nagar (Northern Railway) and Ayodhya (Northern Railway) stations are in progress.

Station redevelopment projects are mostly taken up on Public Private Participation (PPP) mode. Requests for Qualification (RFQ) have been finalised for eight stations viz., Nagpur, Amritsar, Sabarmati, Gwalior, Puducherry, Tirupati, Nellore and Dehradun.

RFQ have been invited for three stations viz., New Delhi, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Ernakulam.