New Delhi Station Redevelopment: Fourth Tender Floated in July 2023 Discharged Again, In Major Setback To Railways

The concerted fourth attempt in the last two decades to revamp New Delhi station as an iconic world class structure, has got derailed again, as tenders floated for redevelopment of the busy station were discharged — a major setback for the Indian Railways.

According to the Railways, the tender was withdrawn as there were issues including a curved road over the tracks, among others, involved with the iconic project which could not be resolved.

A fresh look is being given to the project and a decision would be taken shortly, the sources added.

The redevelopment of New Delhi station is crucial for the Railways as it handles about 400 trains per day with about 450,000 footfalls daily. However, the Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) is going ahead with a truncated plan to develop a multimodal transit hub with an adequate parking facility adjacent to the New Delhi station.

For New Delhi, the Railways had got all due permissions from the land-owning agency, civic authorities, and city government which were a major hurdle for the  project.

After two unsuccessful attempts in 2001-02 and 2008-09, the Railways had finally succeeded in getting the flagship initiative of redevelopment plan of New Delhi station on track after Cabinet’s approval of the project in 2022.

The mega project involves replacing the existing structure with a twin dome-shaped facade at New Delhi station.

In September 2022, the Union Cabinet sanctioned Rs 10,000 crore for the redevelopment of three major railway stations — New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and CSMT in Mumbai.

However, the tender was discharged in May 2023 as the bidders quoted much higher price than the allotted cost.

Reducing the scope of work, the RLDA had issued a fresh tender in its fourth attempt for the much-awaited redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station at an estimated cost of Rs 4,700 crore in July 2023.

This was the fourth time that the RLDA had called for a tender for this project with both RFQ and RFP called twice each. However, it was also scrapped and now a fresh tender would be floated again.

The redevelopment work was to be undertaken in the 3.5 lakh sqm under Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) model as against 4.5 lakh sqm taken up earlier.

Since the cabinet has already approved the project, the Railways did not seek cabinet approval again for re-tendering the project. The project is part of the Centre’s plan to modernise most high-density stations, to ease passenger movement and improve the business prospects of these assets.

The mega project involves replacing the existing structure with a twin dome-shaped facade at New Delhi station. Once completed, it would be an iconic structure to be identified with the Capital city of India.

The redevelopment project is expected to play an instrumental role in augmenting the local economy, generating employment opportunities and boosting the tourism potential of Delhi-NCR.

New Delhi Railway Station is the terminal station for most rail routes going East and South. The station is connected to New Delhi-Mumbai Main Line, New Delhi-Chennai Main Line, and Howrah-Gaya-Delhi Line. The station serves as the main hub for the Rajdhani Express and is both the starting and ending point of the Shatabdi Express.

The redevelopment project is part of the Centre’s plan to modernise most high-density stations, to ease passenger movement and improve the business prospects of these assets.