The government is working on a plan to build several modern railway stations in the country through private companies on the lines of airports. Some such stations will also be fully ready in the next 2-3 years, but for this passengers will also loose pockets. Railways have prepared a plan to collect user charges from passengers at modern railway stations to be built on the lines of airports. Sources said that this charge will be included in the ticket price and will be applicable only for those stations which have been re-developed by private companies.
Some of these stations will also become fully operational in the next 2 to 3 years. An official said, "Private companies will invest huge amount to prepare the stations afresh, the purpose will be to raise revenue. The user fee will be name only and will not be applicable on platform tickets.
The user charge will be collected from the passengers while booking tickets. IRSDC (Indian Railway Stations Re-Development Corporation) responsible for the re-development of stations has recently assigned 2 railway stations to private companies for development under PPP model. These are two stations – Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Modernization of stations also includes re-development of existing stations and construction of new stations. According to the plan, the station area will be leased to the private company for 60 years. Apart from this, the lease period for residential development on station land will be 99 years. Railways had earlier decided to develop modern facilities at 50 railway stations on the lines of privatization of 6 airports in the country.
