Railways likely to charge user fee for stations revamped with pvt help

NEW DELHI: Railways have prepared a plan to levy some user charge from passengers at modern railway stations on the line of airports. Sources said the fee would be included in the ticket and this charge will be applicable only where the railway stations would be revamped through private participation.

Some of these stations will be operational in the next two to three years, sources said. “Since the private players will invest huge amount for station redevelopment, this has to be on revenue generation mode. The user fee will be minimal and won’t be charged through platform tickets for visitors,” said an official.

The user charge could be collected from passengers while booking tickets. IRSDC, which is responsible for redevelopment of stations, had earlier handed over two stations, Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat, to private parties for development under publicprivate partnership. Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat, to private parties for development under publicprivate partnership. Now it has invited bids for Nagpur, Gwalior, Sabaramati and Amritsar railway stations.


The modernisation plan of the stations include developing/re-developing the existing/new railway station. As per the plan, a private player will get 60-years licence of the station area and build area on lease, while for residential development at station land, the lease period will be for 99 years. The railways earlier decided to prioritise the development of 50 railway stations with modern facilities drawing from the example of privatisation of six airports in the country.