Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation To Be Dissolved

The Indian Railways has ordered to dissolve the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC), a letter issued by the Railway Board said on Monday.

This was based on the recommendation of Principal Economic Advisor of Finance Ministry Sanjeev Sanyal for rationalisation of railway bodies by closing down or merging multiple organisations, said the letter.

In a communication to all general managers, the board ordered that all necessary procedural formalities for closure of IRSDC should be initiated.

"The stations managed by IRSDC shall be handed over to respective Zonal Railways and all the projects related documents shall be handed over to respective Zonal Railways by IRSDC. Zonal Railways will further develop the stations' projects," the letter read further.

With this step, the IRSDC is the second organisation under the Ministry of Railways to be shut down after the closure of the Indian Railways Organisation for Alternative Fuel (IROAF) on September 7, 2021.

It is notable that the nine-year-old special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the job, IRSDC is the joint venture company between the Indian Railway Land Development Authority and Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON).

Among various station development projects including the redevelopment of 63 stations, IRSDC was also involved in the redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai.

It is worth mentioning that the IRSDC is at the core of Indian Railway's mission of transforming the country's railway stations into world-class 24x7 hubs and is the nodal agency as well as the main Project Development Agency (PDA) for the redevelopment of railway stations.

To fast track the redevelopment of railway stations and harness the true value of commercial development, many tools have been developed by IRSDC during its nine-year journey to streamline all processes for planning, designing, tendering, implementation and management of railway stations in India.