Visakhapatnam: Business scope of Railway places to be studied

Visakhapatnam: The Railways will study the commercial viability of the railway premises before taking up the city station redevelopment work. Railway Board chairman Mr Lohani said, “There were many open sites in the city with huge potential. So, we have to check first if the commercial scope of the railway premises and if they match with those sites. We will study the business potential of the railway spaces which are to be leased out for the redevelopment of the station.

According to the plan, private developer could build commercial establishments including hotels, multiplexes and shopping malls and would be given rights for commercial exploitation of the land at the station for a period of 45 years, while the ownership of the land remains with the railways.

Earlier, the ECoR zone was inviting tender for the redevelopment works. However, it extended the last date of bidding for it as the interested private players had expressed many doubts and sought time to study for the unique and first-of-kind project. 

However, the chairman said that Indian Railway Station Development Corporation would be tasked with all the station redevelopment works. The bidders had wanted to study the railway projects going on at other places. The project tendering process had comprised of two stages-invitation and bidding stage. For the document invitation stage with technical proposals and the process had begun from February 8.

Offline bookings may get insurance cover

Passengers booking railway ticket online through IRCTC fall under the accidental insurance scheme, Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani said he would see if the scheme could be extended to offline booked tickets too.  The chairman listened to the various issues raised by the media at the city railway station here on Wednesday.

The railways launched an accidental insurance scheme for passengers in September last year where the heir of the passengers in case of death will get Rs 10 lakh while the passenger can avail Rs 7.5 lakh in case of permanent disability, up to Rs 2 lakh for hospitalisation expenses and Rs 10,000 for transportation of mortal remains from the place of a train accident or where an untoward incident under the scheme.

However, not one of the 41 passenger killed or the scores who sustained injuries in the Kuneru railway mishap in Vizianagaram district on January 21 could avail the travel insurance coverage of up to Rs 10 lakh at a premium of 92 paise only. This was because they had booked ticket from ticket counters. Moreover the scheme could be availed only for those who get a ticket through online (IRCTC website). According to railway sources, 42 per cent of tickets booked every day are in an offline mode that is from railway ticket counters.