In a step forward, the Railway authorities have now approached the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Heritage Committee for their permission to enable them to go ahead with the redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) building. This is among the vital steps to be taken for this Rs 1,300 crore plus revamp of the World Heritage site.
Confirming the same, Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager of Central and Western Railways said that they have sent the proposal to redevelop CSMT railway station to the Heritage Committee of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
This would ideally mean that the local municipal authorities will have to submit their comments and suggestions to the railways over the aspects of revamping proposed by the Central Railway who have prepared primary designs.
According to railway officials, the redevelopment of railway stations especially CSMT is closely monitored by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
CSMT is one of the first stations that are under the priority of the rail authorities for redevelopment at a cost of over Rs 1,350 crore. The Indian Railways has proposed to lease CSMT for 27 years. They have also adopted the Hybrid Annuity Model for funding redevelopment of CSMT station which is likely to replace the PPP model under which the cost was Rs 1,637 crore.
As per the new Hybrid Annuity Model, the private contractor will fund 60 per cent of the project cost while Indian Railways will pay 40 per cent of the cost. This is over a period of 27 years.
As per the earlier PPP model, the developer had to bear the entire cost of the project and, in return, would have received long-term lease rights for real estate development up to 99 years for residential or mixed-use purposes.
On January 15, 2021, after the evaluation, nine bidders qualified for the next stage. The shortlisted bidders were Adani Railways Transport Ltd, M/s Godrej Properties Ltd, M/s Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Ltd, M/s Oberoi Realty Ltd, M/s ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments Pte Ltd, M/s Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd, M/s GMR Enterprises Private Ltd, M/s Moribus Holdings Pte, Ltd and M/s BIF IV Infrastructure Holding DIFC Pvt Ltd.
The World Heritage CSMT railway station in the grand scheme of things, will become a Rail-o-polis and be a point of conjunction for various modes of public transit. It will hold residential and commercial offices with a built-up area of 2.54 lakh sq metres.
The suburban rail line at CSMT is likely to be joined by subways and FOBs to connect it with Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro 3 and Wadala-CSMT Metro-11 as well.
