Developers enthusiastic, but raise queries about encroachment, lease period

In the past one month, the Railways has received interest from may developers, including big players such as Tata and Larsen and Toubro. “We have received interests from more than 20 parties in the past one month. These refer to taking tour study and asking queries related to contractual terms of the work. We will get a clear picture in June, when actual bids are received,” a senior CR official said. Officials from the WR too said they had received a positive response from almost 35 developers for the project.

With bids and agreement documents released, developers have a period of three months to design their technical and financial proposals. The land will be given to developers on a 45-year lease, wherein a certain percentage of returns would be used to develop better passenger amenities on the stations.

Certain stations, including Pune and LTT on the CR and Mumbai Central and Borivali on the WR, were more sought-after.

“Pune station has grabbed the eyeballs of developers. It is the next big station to be connected by Metro and has massive vacant space around for commercial exploitation. LTT has also received a decent response due to the the scope available in its works,” the CR official added.

“In the WR, we expect to get the maximum bidders for Mumbai Central considering it is well connected to suburban routes and long-distance commute. It is also expected to be well-connected by metro. While Borivali station can get great response, we are apprehensive about Bandra, considering the land earmarked for it is at a distance from the station. With heavy encroachments around the land, connectivity to the pocket identified is also poor,” a senior WR official added.

Officials had maintained that encroachments around the railway stations had left lesser space for identification for development. While developers are taking interest, some have raised red flags over the poor allotment of land.