Anuj Puri, Chairman & Country Head, JLL India:
The railway minister Suresh Prabhu’s announcement today on redevelopment of 400 stations through the private-public partnership (PPP) model is a very progressive and welcome move. This project will foster a plethora of large transit-oriented developments across the country, possibly resulting in the largest TOD undertaking in the world and thereby leading to higher transit ridership. This way, Indian Railways can efficiently monetize their land parcels, particularly in cities with higher densities, by commercially exploiting existing railway stations through sale of space rights over them. It will be great to see the arrival of more developments of the kind we see getting developed in Seawoods in Navi Mumbai and Karkardooma Metro station in Delhi.