While global bids were invited for railway station redevelopment projects flagged off by IRSDC, Lohia quelled rumours of leading Chinese realty developer Wanda Group bagging the Surat project and added that Metro may be integrated into the Surat project.

The ambitious multi-modal transport hub construction project of Surat railway station, slated to begin last year, received nine bids by interested developers even as authorities have advanced the bidding dates to April 15, 2017. This was revealed by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) CEO Sanjeev Kumar Lohia, who gave a talk on “Metro System: Planning, Design & Operation” at CEPT University on Thursday after attending the second meeting of GARUD (Gandhinagar Railway Station Integrated Development Company Ltd,) — an SPV formed to implement redevelopment of Gandhinagar railway station.

While global bids were invited for railway station redevelopment projects flagged off by IRSDC, Lohia quelled rumours of leading Chinese realty developer Wanda Group bagging the Surat project and added that Metro may be integrated into the Surat project. Sources close to the development said that close to four bids had come for the Gandhinagar project.

“The Wanda Group had come and met us. They were interested for Gandhinagar and Surat, but we have been trying to showcase the projects across the globe and have held roadshows in Abu Dhabi, Dubai etc. In both instances, we had opened up the bids globally, but perhaps the size of the project was small so we did not get global projects to bid. The Gandhinagar railway station redevelopment project is roughly Rs 245 crore, including the 5-star hotel project which will have 300 rooms. On February 8, the bidding process for redevelopment of 23 railways station in the country was put into motion and by mid-May or so, prospective bidders and developers will submit their concept designs, to be followed by a process of selection… In Surat, we have invited the bids and we have received a total of 9 parties by March 3 and are in the process of evaluating and hopefully by April 15, we will issue the RFP (Request for proposal),” said Lohia.

He said the entity will have a separate students category in the design competition which sought to invite concept design for the redevelopment of Gwalior, Baiyappanahalli (Bengaluru), Gandhinagar-Jaipur, Amritsar and Nagpur stations. He said that while both students and professional architectural firms will be adjudged by the same jury, this move will open up work opportunities for budding talent to work with professional firms while allowing IRSDC to have a wider stakeholder consultation. The winning firm will also operate the five-star hotel and the twin properties of Mahatma Mandir and Helipad exhibition grounds.