MUMBAI: EPC or engineering, procurement and construction entities (EPC) companies are awaiting a Rs 30,000-crore business opportunities from the various contracts coming up to redevelop/revamp the existing railway stations over the next two years alone.
The Railways have approved redevelopment/revamp of as many as 1,318 railway stations and according to an Icra Ratings report this is worth Rs 30,000 crore of business opportunities for EPC players over the next two years.
Earlier, the government had envisaged majority of the station redevelopment projects under the public-private-partnership mode, which accounted for around 12 per cent for the national asset monetisation pipeline target.
However, with limited participation in the PPP mode owing to restrictions on pricing, market risks related to real estate development and limited track record of PPP projects in the railways space, the government reallocated station redevelopment work on the EPC mode in December 2022 and has increased the budgetary allocation by more than seven times from Rs 2,159 crore in FY23 to Rs 15,511 crore in FY25.
According to Vinay Kumar G of the agency, due to high competition in traditional segments like roads and buildings, railway station redevelopment provides business opportunities worth Rs 30,000 crore for EPC companies.
The station redevelopment project awards saw moderate competition in the past two years, reflecting maximum discounts of up to 18 per cent and a median discount of up to 4 per cent and have been similar to other railway EPC projects where the median discount is up to 5 per cent.
Among the stations being taken up for redevelopment, UP has the maximum number at 149 stations, followed by Maharashtra at 126, Bengal at 94, Gujarat at 87, Bihar at 86, Rajasthan at 82 and MP will see 80 of its stations getting revamped.
Of the total foundation stones have been laid for 553 stations and over Rs 20,000 crore of station redevelopment projects has been awarded to date.
The awards for 765 stations are pending and some of the key stations like New Delhi, Pune, Borivali in Mumbai, Mumbai Central, Thane, Amritsar etc are yet to be awarded.
The key awarded stations under the EPC mode include Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal Mumbai, and the stations in Ahmedabad, Surat, Prayagraj, Bangalore Cantt, Chennai Egmore and Secunderabad among others.