Indian Railways’ project of redeveloping stations across the country, the nodal agency has developed a first-of-its-kind ‘form-based codes’ for the commercial development of railway land. The form-based codes approach is a comprehensive set of codes, norms, and guidelines prepared by the nodal organization to plan station redevelopment and regulate commercial development of railway land.

“Testing of the draft codes is being done at the ongoing station redevelopment projects at Nagpur, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Gwalior, Bijwasan, Anand Vihar, etc,” the statement said.

According to Indian Railways Station Development Corporation, the codes or handbook/guidebook are compiled in six parts including such as Handbook for station planning, a guidebook for operationalizing national transit-oriented development policy for railway and station redevelopment, form-based codes for commercial development of railway land, codes for architectural design of commercial assets, green building codes for commercial development on railway land, codes for railway heritage asset.

The Indian Railways Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) has adopted the approach of the form-based code, as per the guidebook issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Codes for Commercial Development on Railway Land is a comprehensive Code drafted to regulate Layout Planning and Sub-Plot Development within Railway land. It will be a Model Code to enable development of FBC applicable to the Sub-Plots of the Railway land. These Development Control Norms will apply to development of all such Sub-Plots which includes permissibility of uses, maximum permissible footprint area, Facilities for persons with disabilities (Divyangjan),Green Common Open Space,Conservation of Trees, Parking Standards.

“These codes formulated by IRSDC will lead to a systematic and scientific standardization of the development of railway stations, including commercial development on railway land. I would like to congratulate IRSDC for systematic and scientific standardization of design and implementation processes to Fastrack development, embodying customization, innovation and the true spirit of AatmaNirbhar Bharat and sustainable planning techniques,” Amitabh Kant, CEO – Niti Ayog said during a webinar hosted by IRSDC.