Railways may get Rs 7,500 crore under Transit Oriented Development scheme

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways expects to earn Rs 7,500 crore from three land parcels near metro stations in Delhi by monetising them under the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) scheme, two officials aware of the matter said.

The railways had expected to make Rs 5,000 crore from the land parcels before the TOD policy was approved in Delhi.

The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), which is a statutory authority under the ministry of railways for development of vacant railway land for commercial use, has written to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) asking them to include land parcels at Kishanganj, Shakur Basti and Punjabi Bagh under the TOD policy.

“The 15.27 hectare land at Kishanganj was put on sale for Rs 1,860 crore but in between the DDA approved the TOD policy. Because the land is close to the metro station, under the new policy, it can fetch up to Rs 2,700 crore. As per our estimate, the rate will go up by 53% if the land becomes part of TOD,” said Ved Parkash Dudeja, vice chairman of RLDA.

The reason for increase in price is high Floor Area Ration (FAR) and commercial exploitation of land under the TOD policy.

DDA usually allows 10% area of the land for commercial development while under the TOD it can go up to 30%, which lead to increase in land price.

“Dynamics changes once you allow more area for commercial use since demand for commercial space is more than residential. By joining hand with railways, the developer will get a land without any litigation and no one else have huge chunk of land in Delhi,” Dudega added.

RLDA is offering about 100 acres of land at the three locations close to the metro stations, besides offering land parcels at other parts of the capital.

DDA had approved the TOD policy in September and it will soon be notified. In the policy, development has been proposed along metro stations and for the pilot phase, Dwarka Sector 18, Dwarka Sector 21, Mayur Vihar Extension, Mukundpur, Sarojini Nagar and INA (combined) metro stations have been selected. “We are getting lot of request from the land owners but they want us to show that TOD can be a success. It will change the landscape of Delhi,” said a DDA official.