Rail Arcade Planned At Bengaluru And Chandigarh Stations, To Offer Best Amenities

With the objective of enriching travel experience of passengers by providing world class amenities at rail premises, Indian Railways has undertaken an elaborate exercise for creating Rail Arcade at KSR Bengaluru station and Chandigarh station.

The Rail Arcade is envisaged as a mini-city centre with food and beverage, entertainment, leisure and retail facilities.

Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) with the mandate for redevelopment of stations across the country has invited bids for setting-up, operation, management and transfer of Rail Arcade at two stations at Bengaluru and Chandigarh for a period of nine years.

According to the bid details, the objective of this initiative is to provide best-in-class amenities to passengers and boost their travel experience. It is a part of IRSDC’s overall mandate to undertake the Facility Management of five railway stations across India — KSR Bengaluru, Pune, Anand Vihar, Chandigarh and Secunderabad.

Demand-oriented design, excellent quality, safety and security, innovative offerings, attractive revenue generation model and sustainability will be the hallmarks of this initiative.

"As an organization at the forefront of station redevelopment, IRSDC embodies customer-centricity and innovation in its core philosophy. The planned Rail Arcade has been envisaged as a one-stop destination for food and beverage, retail, entertainment and recreation. It will enable passengers to utilise their mundane waiting time and turn it into leisure hours, and they will look forward to visiting these stations," IRSDC Managing Director and CEO SK Lohia said.

Besides food and beverage, some of the proposed facilities at the Rail Arcade include passenger convenience store, gifts, books and magazine, handloom and artefacts, consumer goods kiosks, including FMCG and pharmaceutical stores.

The concessionaire will be mandated to take over the identified space and undertake the remodelling of the entire area for the development of commercial, leisure and entertainment space at the station.

Lohia further said, "As an integrated facility, Rail Arcade will fuel commercial activities and will be a formidable step in transforming railway stations into a RAILOPOLIS — an integrated mini smart city to 'Work, Play and Ride'."

IRSDC has many firsts to its credit in facility management, including ‘Water from Air’ Water Vending Machine, Fit India Squat Kiosk, Eat Right Station with the highest rating, digital locker, generic medicine shop, mobile charging kiosk, a retail store by a start-up and a food truck.

Shortly, IRSDC will be undertaking facility management of 90 more stations in a phased manner.

IRSDC is also driving the agenda of station redevelopment envisioned by the Government of India, with the participation of private players as a part of PPP projects.

As part of this agenda, work on the redevelopment of 125 stations is in progress. Out of this, IRSDC is working on 63 stations, and RLDA is working on 60 stations and two remaining stations by the Railways itself.

As per current estimates, the total investment needed for the redevelopment of 125 stations along with real estate development is about Rs 50,000 crore.

IRSDC is a joint venture company of RLDA, RITES and IRCON. IRSDC is at the core of Indian Railway's mission of transforming the country's railway stations into world-class 24x7 hubs and is the nodal agency and the main Project Development Agency (PDA) for the redevelopment of railway stations.