(a) the total area of vacant land owned by Railways, currently, zone-wise;
(b) the area of vacant land put to commercial use during the last three
years, zone-wise;
(c) the revenue earned by the Railways from commercial utilisation of such land; and
(d) the plan/programme chalked out for gainful utilisation of the remaining land?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS (KUMARI MAMATA BANERJEE)
(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of Sabha.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 215
BY SHRI BHAKTA CHARAN DAS AND SHRI P.VISWANATHAN TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON
10.03.2011 REGARDING UTILISATION OF VACANT LAND.
(a) to (d): Indian Railway network occupies a land area measuring about
10.65 lakh acres. Ninety per cent of this land is directly under railway tracks,
yards, workshops and allied infrastructure. The vacant land, measuring about
1.13 lakh acres is mostly in the form of a narrow strip along tracks which
railways has been utilizing, or plan to utilize, for its expansion in the form
of doubling, third line, quadrupling, gauge conversion, freight corridors, yard
remodelling, traffic facility works, workshops, etc. and for servicing and
maintenance of track and other infrastructure.
Railway also plans to utilize its vacant land, not required by railway
for its immediate future operational needs, for setting up of rail coach and
component factories, loco component factories, wagon factories, coach
rehabilitation and wagon repair workshops, multi-model logistic parks, auto
hubs, cold storage and perishable cargo centres, etc.
Vacant land not required by railway for its immediate future operational
needs is also utilized for commercial development, wherever feasible, for the
interim period, through a Statutory Authority namely Rail Land Development
Authority (RLDA) set up in 2007 through an act of Parliament. Till now, developers
have been fixed by RLDA for 5 sites involving an area of about 45 acres and a
revenue of approximately Rs.71 crore has been realised. Realisation of additional
revenues through such measures is an on-going process.