Railway consultancy firm RITES is likely to pick up 24% stake in IRSDC

New Delhi: Railway consultancy firm RITES is likely to pick up 24 percent stake in the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC), sources told Zee Media.

IRSDC was incorporated as a Joint Venture of Ircon International Limited (IRCON) and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), with the aim to develop the Railway Stations across India with primary objective of augmenting and maintaining passenger amenities at stations in a holistic manner.

The Equity stake of IRCON and RLDA in IRSDC is in the ratio of 50:50. However after the stake acquisition of RITES in IRSDC, the share of IRCON will be reduced to 26 percent.

As per sources, RITES may make an official announcement regarding this in the next two weeks. As per information available with Zee News, RITES has entered into an agreement worth Rs 48 crore for the IRSDC stake.

The government had made a separate policy for development of stations under Station Redevelopment Programme through Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) on ‘as is where is’ basis. It approved Railways’ proposal for redevelopment of railway stations by IRSDC as Nodal Agency, through simplified procedures and for longer lease tenure.

Accordingly, all the stations on Indian Railways have been entrusted to IRSDC and other Government agencies for undertaking the techno-economic feasibility studies. Based on the outcome of the feasibility studies, stations are planned to be taken up for redevelopment in phases especially the stations located in major cities, pilgrimage centres and important tourist destinations. Redevelopment of stations is planned though leveraging of commercial development of vacant land/air space in and around stations.