Twin Dome To Come Up Over New Delhi Station To Make It An Iconic Rail Premise

A double dome architecture structure of 450 metre longs and 80 metre height would come up over New Delhi station as part of the redevelopment plan as Indian Railways has firmed up a hybrid BOT (Build operate and transfer) model for the much awaited ambitious Rs 4,470 crore project.

Designed by a Belgium-based consultant, the 25 floors high twin dome, also to be known as Infinity Towers, is expected to cover all the 16 platforms of the New Delhi station.

In a detailed review meeting with the Rail Land Development Authority on Friday, Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav examined the station redevelopment issue thread bare to expedite the project.

Aiming at faster mode of execution, the Railways has rejigged the original redevelopment plan by withholding commercial development activities from the station's development plan.

The commercial development involving real estate would be taken up in the second phase and infrastructure of the station including upgradation of passenger amenities, parking lots and core areas of the station building will be undertaken in the first phase as priority, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The hybrid BOT model would be adopted for both the Rs 4,470 crore New Delhi station project and Rs 1,600 crore Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus project in Mumbai.

The hybrid BOT model envisages 40 per cent payment during the construction while 60 per cent would be paid to the builder by the Railways in installments over the next 26 years as assured return.

The Railways would seek Cabinet approval for both the stations shortly as the project involved is more than Rs 1,000 crore each.

The earlier plan was to carry out real estate development for commercial exploitation along with existing core area upgradation of the station.

Since it caused much delay due to land related issues, it has been decided to go ahead with the core area development first on a priority basis, said the official.

The commercial development involving real estate would be followed after the core area upgrade.

There are about 185 stations to be redeveloped in the first phase by the RLDA.