Surat: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu during his Surat visit on Sunday said 30 companies are qualified in pre-bid process for Multi Model Mass Transportation Hub(model railway station) project in Surat.

He said, in the past the tender process would take 2 to 3 years time for such project, however the process for Surat project has been completed within one year period.

Tenders for this project will be opened in the month of February itself and work order will be given soon after that, he added.

Local Lok Sabha MP representing Navsari seat CR Patil said, “there was an issue of lease period for the land in this project as two partners GSRTC and SMC have provision of 90-year lease period, while railway was in process to fix 45-year lease period. Patil said, when representation was made before railway minister in this regard, he solved the issue within hour and gave consent for 90-year lease. Patil said Prime Minister wishes to build 400 world-class railway stations across the country. His first wish is to see model railway station in Surat in match with facilities available at Delhi’s T3 airport terminal.”

It should be mentioned here that in-principal decision has been taken to build 61-storey five buildings in Surat under this project.

DeshGujarat