Title - RAIL NEWS CENTER: Commercial Utilization of Vacant Railway Land

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. for servicing and maintenance of track and other rail related infrastructure. Vacant Railway land/air-space not required by Railways for its immediate future operational needs is utilized for commercial development through Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), wherever feasible. So far, 55 sites having area of 154 hectare amenable for commercial development have been identified. As the commercial development is a market driven activity, to be undertaken with the approval of the State Governments/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.