Surat railway station to be 3rd in country with 'airport like' facilities

The Surat railway station will be the third in the country and the second in Gujarat after Gandhinagar to be developed as a world-class facility under a Railway Ministry station redevelopment programme, officials said.

The station will be equipped with several "airport-like" amenities under the ministry's 'Rs 1 lakh crore station redevelopment' programme, they said.   

SITCO, a joint venture between the IRSDC, the Surat Municipal Corporation and the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation, has invited request for qualification (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) for the development of a multi-modal transportation hub at the station, the officials said.

The hub will be built at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore and is expected to be ready by 2020, they said. 

"It is a unique project, in which three levels of government have come together to redevelop the station. The Centre, the state as well as the urban local body will pool land together, which is a first. The construction will start this year," IRSDC Managing Director S K Lohia said. 

The total land area of the station will be 3,19,700 sqm and the built-up area 57,739 sqm with the size of the concourse at 9,825 sqm. The area under commercial development would be around 5,07,054 sqm.

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The station would be a multi-modal transport hub with a bus terminal having a built-up area of 40,724 sqm, Lohia said.

It will also have five road under-bridges and a parking space for 900 vehicles. It is expected to cater to around 3,49,684 passengers every day, the official said.

The country's first two world-class stations -- Habibganj and Gandhinagar -- will be ready by the beginning of next year. 

The Habibganj railway station will be redeveloped by December 2018, likely six months in advance than its scheduled deadline of June 2019, while the Gandhinagar station, with a five-star hotel atop the tracks, will be completed in January 2019. 

The Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) is putting all efforts to provide at least three "airport-like" railway stations during the next one and a half years, the officials said.

The IRSDC is mandated to redevelop about 800 railway stations across the country.

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The corporation is a joint venture between IRCON (a Government of India undertaking) and the RLDA a statutory authority under the Ministry of Railways responsible for these projects.