BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government and the East Coast Railway (ECoR) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Rs 840-crore Bhubaneswar railway station multi-modal hub project.
ECoR Divisional Railway Manager Sashikant Singh signed the MoU with Premchand Choudhury, Vice-Chairman, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was present on the occasion, while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik attended it through video-conferencing.
“Transforming Bhubaneswar railway station into a world-class station and multi-modal hub will be one of the biggest milestones for the state,” said Patnaik.
The BDA will be the nodal agency for planning, designing and executing the project for providing seamless connectivity to commuters. Surbana Jurong, a Singapore-based international design consultant, has been roped in for the project.
The hub and the public infrastructure would be ready in 30 months, said the Chief Minister.
The infrastructure component includes a new terminal building for the station, city bus terminal, car park, dedicated pickup and drop off lanes for taxi, auto-rickshaws and other vehicles besides theatre, art and children’s plaza and food courts.
As its core, the project will have an iconic city square with a centrally-located high Axe tower, providing mixed use of development like commercial, retail, hotel, service apartments.
It would benefit Odias as well tourists visiting the state, he said. Once ready the project would boost tourism and also become a catalyst for development in the state, said Pradhan.
While the public infrastructure will be developed in the engineering, procurement and construction mode at a cost of Rs 300 crore, the mixed-use real estate component, to be developed on the PPP model, will cost around Rs 540 crore. IANS
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