Even as the Railways aggressively puts station redevelopment on top priority, it shut down its nine-year-old special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the job, the joint venture company Indian Railway Station Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) on Monday without any prelude.
The station development project, as per the order, will go to the respective zonal railways now — basically going back to the old system.
The order from the Railway Ministry said that all documents and current contracts are to be transferred to the respective zonal railways.
The government has taken up redevelopment of 50 major railway stations on a priority basis besides having plans for all busy stations to undergo an overhaul with private participation.
Officials in the IRSDC said that they were faced with an uncertain future as many officials had opted for being “absorbed” in the cadre. Railway ministry sources, however, said that officials could be repatriated.
The company is a joint venture between the Indian Railway Land Development Authority and IRCON. The whole station development project was being divided between IRLDA and IRSDC.
While cutting down flab by way of shutting down myriad organisations is a plan recommended by Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal, sources in Railways told The Indian Express that local railway officials had raised red flags about the kind of work being done on the ground by IRSDC.
“Besides, the amount of manpower IRSDC would need to deploy at all locations would itself make the company too heavy and unviable. So it is in the best interest of the overall vision that it was decided to shut down,” said a top Railway Ministry official.
