Bhubaneswar: Indian Railways and Odisha government will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday for the redevelopment of Bhubaneswar railway station as part of a multi-modal hub project.
As per the proposal, the area adjoining the Bhubaneswar railway station will be developed into a Railway Station Multimodal Hub (RSMH) under the Centre’s Smart City Mission. This project is being taken up by the Odisha government through the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).
The divisional manager of Khurda Road Railway Division, Sashikant Singh, will sign the MoU with the BDA vice chairman.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will attend the signing ceremony through video link from Bhubaneswar. Similarly, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan will attend as guests at New Delhi.
The proposed multi-modal hub will have a new terminal building for the railway station, a city bus terminal, public car park and other allied public utilities, a mixed-use development over the land belonging to BDA and the Odisha government’s General Administration department and a concourse connecting both sides of the station, across all platforms.
The new station building and the two new railway lines with platforms will be developed in an integrated manner over the land belonging to the Railways and state government. The proposed building will have G+5 floors of which three floors will be earmarked for the use by Railways. The area earmarked for Railways will be 1.74 lakh sq ft.
As per the cost sharing agreement, Railway will provide approximately Rs 70 crore for the project, including the construction of two additional lines with one platform, full cover shed, extension of FOB and all modern passenger amenities.
The state government will provide around Rs 60 crore for construction of the new station building having G+2.
