Train travel to become expensive, passengers will have to pay user development fee at major stations

File pic: Zee News

New Delhi: Train travel from big railway stations is likely to become expensive as passengers will have to pay on the lines of airports. The national transporter will soon collect railway tickets as well as user development fee (UDF) at major railway stations, according to sources.

The Railway Ministry is expected to come out with a notification for the station user fees by December 2020, the sources told Zee News.

This will be applicable when big railway stations will be equipped with all modern facilities under the redevelopment project through private players, who will then start commercial operations of these stations. 

The major stations expected to be covered under the redevelopment project are Mumbai, Jaipur, Habibganj, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Bijwasan, and Anand Vihar.

The ministry has chalked out a plan to redevelop major stations with modern and passenger facilities on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The participation of private players will be invited through a bidding process under this project.

The private players will in return be able to earn through commercial complexes and station user fees from these major railway stations.

The government has also started the bidding process for Mumbai CST station after the in-principle approval of Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC). 

Request for qualification (RFQ) for the redevelopment of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (Mumbai) on PPP has been invited by IRSDC vide NIT published on August 20. 

The RFQ document is available on http://irsdc.enivida.com/. The pre-bid conference is scheduled to take place on September 22, 2020, while the application due date is October 22, 2020.