DDA and Railways agreed for commercial development of Delhi’s two railway stations

As per the agreement, Indian Railways’ Rail Land Development Authority(RLDA) will get two thirds share of the revenue while DDA will get one third.

Indian railways has decided to develop commercial facilities on the vacant lands at two railway stations of Delhi – Annand Vihar and Bijwasan. These stations will have commercial facilities such as shopping complexes and malls etc. on the pattern of metro railway stations. The huge amount of vacant land would be utilized to increase revenue of the railway without increasing the passengers or freight charges.

As per the agreement signed between the two agencies – DDA and RLDA – the railways have been provided freedom to use the vacant land without seeking the permission from DDA for change of the land use on case to case basis. The agency has been granted one-time permission for changing the land use as per the Railway Rules provided it pays 33.33 percent revenue to the land owning agency – DDA. "At Anand Vihar area Transit Oriented Development (TOD) would be applicable along with Karkardooma area so as to have integrated Transit Oriented Development to maximize revenue realization," said spokesperson of DDA. The estimated cost for development of Anand Vihar and Bijwasan terminals would be capped at 313 cr. and Rs. 761 Cr, respectively.

As the profit margin of the Indian Railways have has reduced drastically since 2014 and options of increasing the fares are limited, the agency is trying to find out alternative ways to increase the revenue. The recent data reveal that Indian railways profitability dropped by 7.8 percent between 2014-19. In the financial year 2017-18, Indian railways expended 98.4 praise on revenue of every Rs 1.

The initiative of commercialization of surplus land at railway stations is being considered as a viable option for the Indian Railway. If successful, this may be applied on other railway stations in Delhi as well as other metros of the country.