“Indian Railways’ Land Monetization program steps up to thumping start this year”

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has awarded 10.76 hectare land parcel at Ashok Vihar, New Delhi to Godrej Properties Limited for 99 years’ lease, through open bidding process. The Letter of Demand (LoD) was handed over by Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice Chairman/ RLDA to Gaurav Pandey, North India head of Godrej Properties Limited on 14th February, 2020 in the new office of RLDA in Konnectus Tower, New Delhi. This marks the beginning of large scale land monetisation endeavour of Ministry of Railways, as a source of non-fare revenue generation, as envisaged by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, who has taken many initiatives in recent years in this direction.

The Ashok Vihar land parcel is most suited for residential development. Godrej Properties Limited will give upfront lease premium of Rs 1359 crores to RLDA in 8 interest bearing instalments and also construct 135 staff quarters for Railways. This is one of the biggest deals for residential development in the country in the recent years and will be a big boost for the realty sector.

Ashok Vihar is one of the strategically located site in North Delhi spread over 10.76 hectares of land with development potential of 2.66 million square feet. The residential development envisaged shall stand out to be one of the most modern integrated residential project of Delhi NCR. The selected developer partner Godrej intends to make it as a true smart & healthy living place, catering to demand of mid & premium segment.

Successful award of the Ashok Vihar site is big starter for land monetization program and adrenalin push to current industry sentiments. Further it augurs promising for future announcements of RLDA in terms of traction to best of the names from the real estate industry including developers, private equity and sovereign wealth funds who have been prospecting for large ticket investments in Indian real estate & construction opportunities.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), the nodal authority under the aegis of Ministry of Railway is entrusted with the charter of monetization of surplus land parcels which are of the tune of 43,000 hectares at pan country level including prime location in all the Metro Cities. The envisaged development types in these prospective land parcels ranges from residential township, mixed land use to Grade “A” commercial projects.