The Hindu : National : Railways to promote group housing

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Monday, Nov 19, 2007
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National

Railways to promote group housing

Sandeep Joshi

Developer could be single firm or a consortium
To invite financial bids from selected players

NEW DELHI: Sitting pretty on unutilised land of almost 1.5-lakh acres across the country, the Ministry of Railways has started giving shape to its ambitious land development projects. To begin with, the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has identified 10 sites for development of group housing and commercial projects.

RLDA, a statutory authority set up for commercial development of railway land for generating revenue by non-tariff measures, has invited developers to participate in housing and commercial projects in Delhi, Kanpur, Bangalore, Gwalior, Kolkata and Vizag, totalling 174.91 acres. Of these, six are group housing projects, while two are commercial.

Designing

Keeping in mind the massive scale of these projects, the RLDA has said the developer could be a single company or consortium of companies who would get land on long-term lease, which could be 90 years for housing and 30 years for commercial projects. The developer will be responsible for designing, financing, developing and marketing the entire project. Three housing projects will come up in Kolkata, one each has been planned for Delhi, Kanpur and Vizag. A commercial project each in Gwalior and Vizag, one hotel project in Bangalore and one housing-cum-commercial project near Kolkata have also been planned.

Official sources said the RLDA would first qualify players on the basis of technical bids and then invite financial bids from selected players. To make its projects successful, the authority is consulting various government bodies, such as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

The RLDA has already been asked to prepare projects for over 100 sites.

Apart from housing and commercial projects, it will also invite private investors for development of multi-modal logistic parks, warehouses, stockyards and terminals for handling container trains.

The Railways that has the total land holding 12 lakh acres all over the country can get more land if it is able to free its land from encroachments.

It has around 1 lakh acre of vacant land, while over 5,000 acres of land is under encroachment. It is planning to engage more personnel to manage its land and is considering forming a task force to tackle the encroachment problem.

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