MoU Signed for setting up a new Corporation ‘Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited’ for Modernizing Stations

The New Corporation to develop more Functional and Customer Oriented Stations

• In a path breaking initiative taken by the Ministry of Railways, a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Feb 01, 2012  for setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely “Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited” (RSDCL) to take up work of redevelopment of railway stations along with station maintenance across India in a dedicated manner as a part of the continuous process of augmenting and improving amenities at the railway stations. 
• The MoU was signed between the two PSUs of the Ministry of Railways, namely Ircon International Limited (IRCON) and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) for formation of this new SPV. 
• The MoU was signed in the presence of the Minister of Railways, Shri Dinesh Trivedi, the Minister of State for Railways, Shri K. H. Muniyappa and Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Vinay Mittal, other Board Members and senior Railway Officials. The signatories to the MoU were Vice Chairman, RLDA, Shri Pankaj Jain and Managing Director, IRCON, Shri Mohan Tiwari. 
• Speaking on the occasion, Shri Trivedi said that this initiative is a part of the Vision 2020 document which was presented by the then Minister for Railways, Mamata Bannerjee. Shri Trivedi said that the Vision documents provided comprehensive road map for the development of all aspects of railway operations from safety, infrastructure, passenger amenities to modernization. 
• The Minister emphasized that the new entity is fully part of the Ministry of Railways and all the property and asset will, therefore, remain with the Railways and there is no question of privatization in the matter. 
• The new entity will help Railway stations develop as vibrant centres of the life of cities for commerce, entertainment and social space. The Vision 2020 document had acknowledged that the stations on Indian Railways are far behind those in the advanced countries and the stations located in major metropolitan cities are ill-equipped to handle growing passenger traffic.The new SPV proposes to address these issues. 
• Under new SPV, it is proposed to provide the identified stations with well designed concourses, high quality waiting spaces, easy access to the platforms, congestion free platforms, modern ‘State of the art’ Catering facilities, Hotels and other facilities. The redeveloped stations would be disabled passenger friendly and would have provision for convenient entry, inter platform transfer and easy access to all the facilities for the physically disabled persons and senior citizens. The stations would also be provided with waste disposal facilities to improve hygiene and cleanliness. 
• Railways also propose to associate State Governments and City Administrations for the development of the stations and areas around in an integrated and holistic manner. City authorities and other stake holders would also be taken on board for such an endeavour for facilitating timely implementation of projects in an integrated manner incorporating development of traffic circulation around stations.