Will levy user charge to redevelop railway stations, says Niti Aayog CEO
The charge will be applicable at all major stations where the footfall of passengers is going to see an increase over the next five years, said Niti Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant.
The Indian Railways will soon start levying a ‘user fees’ as part of train fares for redeveloping railway stations and modernising infrastructure for bringing in investment, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday.
The user development fees model will be used by the national transporter for the first time. User Development Fee (UDF) is part of the tax paid by air passengers. UDF is charged at various airports and the rate of UDF varies from airport to airport based on various factors. Railways plans to levy the user fees across nearly 700-1000 railway stations.
“We are going to keep a very small amount for the user charge. We will issue a notification for the user charge for all stations including both who are getting redeveloped and those which are not. When the redevelopment of the stations gets completed the money will go to the concessionaires, till then that money will go to the railways for improving facilities across stations. It will be an affordable amount, but it is important to levy if we want to provide world class facilities similar to the airport developments. We want to upgrade all our major railway stations,” railway board CEO VK Yadav said.
“We will not levy the charge across all our 7,000 stations but all major stations where the footfall of passengers is increasing over the next five years. It will be done in about 10-15% of all our stations where we expect the footfall to increase,” he added.
This comes in the backdrop of the government’s plan to bring in private investment in the national carrier. The railways plans to redevelop 50 railway stations, and monetise its land. The redeveloped hubs will be called ‘Railopolis’, according to the railways. It will lease the land out for 60 years for commercial purposes.
“We want railways to drive India’s growth story. In countries like Japan and South Korea the growth story was also driven by railway infrastructure. We are confident going forward railways will contribute 1-2% towards India’s growth,” Kant said.
Apex policy think-tank Niti Aayog had, in October, pulled up the ministry of railways for delayed implementation of the Centre’s plan. Niti Aayog had recommended an empowered group of top bureaucrats to develop 50 stations on priority basis.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had in 2016 announced its plan of redeveloping 400 railway stations during its first tenure. As per the plan, the cost of station redevelopment project was to be met by leveraging commercial development of land and air space in and around the stations.
The railway ministry also began the formal process to allow a private company to run trains on 109 routes -- a process that aims to, for the first time, open up one of the government’s most prominent enterprises that has in recent decades been outpaced by the demands of a rapidly growing economy.
“The focus is Make in India, even the global companies that participate in this will have to follow the Make in India norms by the DPIIT. This will bring in manufacturing capacity in India. When Alstom and Bombardier can manufacture metro trains in India then why can’t trains be manufactured. Everything will set up in India,” Kant said.
