New Delhi:(Page3 News Network)-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 have been utilizing or plan to utilize for its expansion in the form of doubling, third line, quadrupling, gauge conversion, freight corridors, yard remodeling, traffic facility works, workshops, etc and for servicing and maintenance of track and other rail related infrastructure. Vacant land not required by Railways for its immediate future operational needs is also proposed to be 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 as act of Parliament. As the commercial development is a market driven activity, to be undertaken with the approval of the State Government/local authorities, assessment of revenue generation can only be done when specific schemes are taken up for development.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
