500-acre Rly land open for commercial use

The railways have decided to offer over 500 acres of prime land to private developers at over 13 locations across the country.

The cities that have been earmarked for the purpose include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore, apart from Lucknow, Vishakapatnam, Gwalior and Gaya.

The newly set up Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), which was formed to commercially exploit the large tracts of land available with the Indian Railways, will offer the land through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Under the PPP model, the railways will form joint ventures in which the land will represent the railways’ portion of the equity. The plots will be developed for commercial use in the form of shopping malls, office space, plazas and multiplexes. Read more at Business Standard