Commercial use of vacant Railway lands to begin soon

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) The first group of sites for development of vacant railway land for commercial use will be entrusted to the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) ''very soon'' to enable it to chalk out its Annual Plan, 2007-08, indicating the revenue projection.

This was stated by Railway Board Chairman J.P.Batra at the second Board meeting of the newly constituted RLDA here today.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Mr S K Vij, the newly appointed Member Engineering, Railway Board, who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the RLDA.

A brief presentation was also made at the meeting regarding activities mandated to be taken up by RLDA, such as commercial development of vacant Railway land and air space, including railway stations, for generating non-tariff resources and providing modern amenities to rail users.

The meeting was attended by Mr B B Saran, RLDA Vice Chairman; Ashok Gupta, Member (Planning, Infrastructure and Development), Mr A K Bhatnagar, Member (Finance) and Mr Deepak Kashyap, Member, (Planning, Rail traffic Co-ordination).

The RLDA was constituted by the Railway Ministry by an amendment to the Railways Act, 1989 with effect from November 1, 2006. The Authority cosists of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and four members, including one from outside (non-Railway member), who will be an expert in real estate.

The RLDA is to take up such vacant land for commercial use which is not required by Railways for its operational use.

It will also take up provision of modern amenities for railway users through commercial development of vacant land and air space at nominated stations.

Apart from generating additional revenue for the development of Railways, RLDA is to play a key role in developing world class stations, provide passenger amenities through construction of food plazas and shopping malls and construct budget hotels.

With nearly 4.23 lakh hectares of land across the country, the Railways is one of the largest landowners in the country. While around 3.19 lakh hectares have been used for railway operations, including construction of rail tracks and other structures, 43,000 hectares are lying unutilised and thus available for commercial use.

Around 2,240 hectares of railway land are under encroachment.

UNI