Global tenders delayed due to row over site selection.
The proposed world class station in Bhubaneswar is in a limbo, thanks to the seemingly unending row over the selection of site for the Rs 4000-crore project.
With the China Railways, the consultant for the project, bent on upgrading the existing station in the city into a world class station and not prepared to consider the alternative site at Barang on the outskirts of the city, the mega project seemed to have been pushed into a blind alley.
“There is no movement on the world-class station in Bhubaneswar as the consultants, China Railways is not prepared to develop the station at Barang where there are no land constraints and 500 acres of land can be acquired for the project. It is not feasible to upgrade the existing station in the city into a world class station due to space constraints and also because of the sheer difficulty in shifting the commercial establishments from the area”, said a source close to the development.
Following the uncertainty in site selection and in the absence of a pre-feasibility study, global tenders for the project, which were supposed to be invited by the end of 2008, have also been delayed, the source added.
The China Railways was not keen on developing the world-class station at Barang owing to commercial viability.
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It may be noted that a high-level Chinese Railways delegation led by W U Wei, director of Sino-India Railway Cooperation Working Group, had visited Bhubaneswar in July 2008 to explore the feasibility of developing a world class station here.
The delegation had held discussions with A K Goyal, the then general manager of East Coast Railway (ECoR) and had submitted its report to the Railway Board on the feasibility of developing a world class station in the city.
Differences had cropped up among the team of China Railways and a section of ECoR as the latter backed Barang as the site for the world class station.
The station was to be built in the public private partnership (PPP) mode taking into account the growth in passenger traffic for the next 30 years and also plan for peripheral commercial activity accordingly.
It may be noted that the proposed station in the city has made negligible progress at the ground level for close to two years even though the state chief minster and the railway Board had agreed on working out a joint mechanism to expedite this project.
The Indian Railways had identified 26 stations across the country including Bhubaneswar for upgrading them into world class stations in the first phase. In all, 50 stations were to be developed into world class stations.
These stations would have shopping centres, food stalls, restaurants, book shops, telephone and fax booths, medicine and variety stores and budget hotels as well as underground parking.
State-run IRCON International Limited and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) will develop these complexes.