GMR, Adani, Reliance Infra in race for 2 railway stations development in Andhra Pradesh; to be built under DBFOT model

Hyderabad: Infra majors including GMR Group, Adani, Reliance Infra and Godrej Properties participated in the pre-bid meeting for re-development of railway stations in Nellore and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), under the Ministry of Railway, has successfully conducted the online pre-bid meetings, an official release said on Thursday. The redevelopment was in line with Smart Cities Mission with an aim to make the two stations multi-modal transit hubs endowed with state-of-the-art amenities, including differently-abled-friendly access ramps and elevators and green building features such as rainwater harvesting and solar energy generation, the release from the RLDA said. [caption id=“attachment_8258491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18.[/caption] The total cost of the projects is estimated to be Rs 130 crore and Rs 510 crore for Nellore and Tirupati respectively which include Rs 53 crore and Rs 230 crore as cost of station development portion. The tender is scheduled to be awarded by mid-June 2020, it said. The pre-bid meetings for Nellore and Tirupati witnessed participation from 25-30 prominent firms such as GMR, Oberoi, Ambience, Adani Group, Godrej Properties, Reliance Infra, Sobha, Brigade, Embassy Group among others, RLDA said. The pre-bid meeting comes after RLDA floated an RFP (Request for Proposal) inviting bids for the selection of a suitable public or private entity for re-development of Nellore and Tirupati railway stations. Both stations will be redeveloped on a PPP (public-private partnership) mode on design, build, finance, operate, transfer (DBFOT) model. They will have operational areas like administrative areas, miscellaneous technical areas, security and station operation staff areas besides world-class amenities for passengers such as shopping, hospitality, food court, cloakroom, dormitories and executive lounges. “Amidst the lockdown induced by COVID-19, we conducted online pre-bid meetings for both Nellore and Tirupati successfully. This is in line with our commitment to ensure seamless operations during this unprecedented time.We have also started opening online tenders also, said Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice-Chairman, RLDA said. The agencies will be evaluated through a two-stage process. The winner will be required to upgrade and redevelop stations in line with recommendations of various stakeholders as well as operate and maintain them. It will be also responsible for executing a comprehensive mobility plan within project land after field study to ensure free and un-obstructive movements of various modes of transport and pedestrians. RLDA is the nodal agency for the redevelopment of railway stations across the Indian Railway network and the major project development agency.