Land given to Railways for commercial sites still undeveloped: Parl Panel

The Public Accounts Committee of Lok Sabha in its report has found that the Railway Land Development Authority RLDA failed in its objective to develop railway land sites for commercial use due to various reasons In the report presented to the Lok Sabha the Committee said that it reviewed 17 sites out of 49 entrusted to RLDA by the Indian Railways in 2007 and noted that none of them were developed till 2017 It added that out of 49 sites only 40 were commercially viableThe Committee chaired by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury selected the subject Development of Railway Land for Commercial use by Rail Land Development Authority which was based on the Comptroller of Auditor Generals CAG report laid in the Lok Sabha on July 20 2018According to the report Indian Railway has 43000 hectares of vacant land out of which it entrusted 49 sites to RLDA from 2007 to 2017 for commercial development to generate revenue The Committee observed that Audit reviewed the development of 17 sites which were entrusted to RLDA in 2007 when it was constituted and found that none of these sites had been developed the report saidAudit findings revealed that there were delays in the engagement of consultants in the submission of reports by the consultants taking permission from state governments for change of land use plan deficiencies in entrustment of land to RLDA by the concerned Zonal Railways by providing encumbered land identifying wrong site or sites with incomplete papers etc which resulted in nondevelopment of these sites of 166996 acres it saidThe Committee also found that since being set up while RLDA incurred expenditure of Rs 10229 cr towards the establishment consultancy charges advertisement etc from 200607 to 201617 it only earned Rs 6797 cr from the development of MultiFunctional Complexes MFCs at railway stations which was not part of the earnings from commercial development of entrusted landsThe Committee in its report said that on perusal of the status of development of these 17 sites it noted that only three sites were handed over for development seven sites were deentrusted and handing over of the remaining seven sites was delayed due to various reasons such as the matter being pending in Courts valuation being done by consultants termination of LOA Letter of Administration etcThe Committee while noting that the Railway Board has since issued instructions to all General Managers to ensure title of the railway land parcel in Railways name and encumbrancesencroachment free land before entrustment to RLDA recommend to be apprised of the reason for deentrustment seven sites and the status of handing over of the remaining seven sites to the RLDA the report saidThe Committee also desires to be apprised of the status of the 40 sites that were found to be commercially viable as on 31 March 2017 it addedThe Committee also noted in the report various other inaction on the part of RLDA such as delay in the appointment of consultants to ascertain the financial valuation of land and to identify the potential use of land to provide maximum revenue and nonpreparation of development planIt also stated that since the railway land was being demarcated in revenue records as a Public and Semi Public Zone the same was required to be converted to a Commercial Zone by obtaining permission from the concerned State Government through the Change of Land Use CLU which the RLDA didnt dothe Committee opine that since land is a state subject under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India the development of the surplus railway land in States UTs should be in conformity with their master plan and therefore the RLDA may pursue with the other states accordingly or explore the option of revenue sharing with them to help speed up projects the report saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever