Surplus Rly land for malls

There's no bigger investment than land. And the railways is cashing in on surplus land it has to develop malls and marketing complexes over the next three years.
Thirty-one sites have been identified; most are near railway stations. The development of these sites is expected to fetch about Rs 1,000 cr. Railway board chairman J P Batra says, "We have 52 sites lying unutilised.They'll fetch good revenue and can be used to expand and modernise the network."
The Railway Land and Development Authority (RLDA), is being constituted for the purpose. "The land will be allotted through bidding," he says.
Presently, the railways earns less than Rs 100 cr from land use. "If the unused land is utilised commercially, earnings will touch Rs 1,000 cr," says R P Gupta, advisor, railway (land and amenities).
"While our total surplus land is 4.23 lakh hectares, only 43,000 hectares will be developed in the first phase with public-private participation."
Many railway stations are in cities. These are major economic zones, says Gupta, and thus railway land holdings are extremely valuable.
"Land at Maninagar in Ahmedabad, Vidhan Sabha Marg in Lucknow, Gandhinagar in Jaipur, Nirala Nagar in Kanpur, Madan Mahal in Jabalpur, Budhalada in Bhatinda, Ajni in Nagpur and R B Mill Road in Pune will be developed for malls."
In West Bengal, malls would come up in Sealdah, Panskura and Howrah, while in Maharashtra, they will come up at Borivili, Bandra, Andheri and Thane.
In Delhi, only two sites will be developed — in Sarai Rohilla and Badli. Gupta says, "We expect malls to do good business as we have received enquiries from various developers. Some want to construct multiplexes also. However, the bidding process will begin after the formation of the RLDA."