Goyal wants to share international railway expertise

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has held consultations on issues related to the Rs.100,000 crore ‘Station Redevelopment Program’ with architects and planners.

The program requires extensive involvement of engineers, planners, architects and other professionals besides the contractors and developers.

Goyal told 110 professionals from 54 firms the need for providing innovative solutions tailored to uniquely Indian conditions.

“I am confident that we will eventually be in a position to share the expertise in other countries as well,” said the minister.

The discussions were held on wide range of issues from the difficulties that the architects and planners are facing in participating in station redevelopment program; modifications required in various documents guiding the station design; general direction that station redevelopment program shall take.

He directed Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) to take up capacity building of consultants as Station Development is as yet a new field.

Goyal also called for young architects and planners to be involved in the station development program, perhaps starting with smaller/simpler stations.

IRSDC, as the nodal agency, is taking up redevelopment of around 600 major railway stations across the country.

An idea competition for development of 635 stations of Indian Railways, ‘SRIJAN’ (Station Rejuvenation Initiative through Joint ActioN) has been launched at MyGov portal since 26.01.2018.

This mammoth exercise will kickstart the program worth Rs100,000 crore investments.

To prepare the plans for stations, IRSDC has taken up multiple initiatives:

International Design Competition for 3 Railway Stations, namely, Nagpur, Gwalior and Baiyappanhalli;
IRSDC has empaneled experienced consultants with multi-disciplinary teams;
IRSDC has also invited professionals to take initiatives and share their vision for railway stations for a token fee and in response, eleven architects have registered themselves for development of 74 railway stations;
SRIJAN is for users and young minds to put across their ideas for implementing “Low Cost High Visibility” items at station areas. fii-news.com