BHUBANESWAR: The decks for the proposed multimodal hub at Bhubaneswar railway station seem to have been cleared as the State Government has urged Indian Railways to finalise the date for signing of the MoU.
Initially planned for January 20, the pact was delayed due to various reasons. In May, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had urged the Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal for revision of the draft MoU proposing that the project would be taken up in one phase instead of two as envisaged earlier.
Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, G Mathi Vathanan has urged Principal Chief Engineer of East Coast Railway (ECoR) to take necessary steps and intimate the Government about the place, date and time for the signing of the agreement. A senior railway official confirmed that a letter from the Secretary had reached ECoR headquarters on December 3 and the date is being finalised for inking the pact. “The Odisha Government has approved the revised MoU to be signed between Ministry of Railways and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The letter has been sent to the Railway Board for finalisation of date and place,” he informed.
Once the MoU is signed, the railway station will be completely overhauled. The existing station building will be demolished and an aesthetically designed multi-storey iconic building with the station at the ground floor will come up. The project will have two components - public infrastructure and mixed-use real estate, which are expected to be completed in 30 months and 48 months respectively.
While public infrastructure will be developed on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model at a cost of Rs 300 crore, the mixed-use real estate component will be developed on PPP model at around Rs 540 crore.
The infrastructure component would include a new terminal building for the railway station, city bus terminal, public car park, dedicated pickup and drop off lanes for taxi, auto-rickshaws and other vehicles besides theatre plaza, art plaza and children’s plaza along with food courts. It will be developed in an integrated manner with one public utility space having a pedestrian environment and cycling tracks.
The mixed-use real estate component will have an iconic city square with a centrally located high rise tower providing mixed-use development - commercial, retail, hotel and service apartments.“The railways have also planned to add one more platform and two new lines making it to seven platforms and 10 lines. A budgetary provision of Rs 70 crore has already been made. The work will start once the MoU is signed,” the railway official added.