Indian Railways News Railways has made several changes in its model contract document for redevelopment of railway stations for the private sector. In this, the relaxation period has been reduced from 60 years to 35-40 years.
New Delhi, Pretr. Indian Railways News: Railways has made several changes in its model contract document for redevelopment of railway stations for the private sector. In this, the relaxation period has been reduced from 60 years to 35-40 years. Generally, the grace period is the time that the government gives to the private sector to build, operate and then transfer the project.
Rail Land Development Authority made many more changes in the model agreement
The new draft of the Model Concession Agreement (MCA) has been prepared by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA). It also provides for one-time and well-defined payments in which there will be no burden of advance payment on the private sector and it can also be easily monitored. It also provides that developers will also give a discount if the railways makes the payment within three days from the deadline.
Similarly, private companies bidding for redevelopment of railway stations will be compensated if the railway station delays the payment of development fee by more than a week. Recently, Ministry of Railways, RLDA and Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) held discussions with various stakeholders regarding finalization of MCA for station development in PPP mode.
Station Quality Index has also been added to the draft to measure the Key Performance Index (KPI) through an independent agency. In the new draft, the constraints related to employment of foreign nationals, trained personnel and others have been removed. It is said that these will come with standards and specifications as per applicable laws and approvals. The draft also allowed co-branding, but railway stations would always be known, promoted, displayed and advertised by their official names.
While the exempted will be able to develop and implement a co-branding programme, it will have to take into account various aspects such as public interest, clarity of information, elegance, liveliness, security and recognition of authority. Also, if any guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of Railways on co-branding, approval from the authority will have to be obtained through an independent engineer.
The main source of income for such development would be station development fee, which would be shared between the developer and the railways. The bidding company which offers the highest share of the fee to the Railways will be given the task of redevelopment. Let us tell you that RLDA is the statutory body under the Ministry of Railways, whose job is to earn money by developing additional railway land across the country and in colonies and villages. Redevelopment of stations. RLDA is presently functioning at 112 stations, 84 colonies and more than 100 green land commercial sites.
