Description of Project
The client is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) established solely for the purpose of the development and implementation of a cross-border high speed rail projects in Asia. This high-speed rail project will serve as an impetus towards socio-economic development along the railway corridor and ultimately change how people live, work and travel entirely.
To better achieve the project vision, the client aspired to develop a Socio-Economic Development Action Plan (SEDAP) that outline a holistic and structured approach to the planning, design and implementation of the high-speed rail connectivity.
Full Story
Regional connectivity has been a main factor in driving economic growth and business activities along the project site for years. Agglomeration occurs when consumers and businesses are brought “nearer” to each other by virtue of greater capacity on transport network, reduced journey times and reduced costs of transportation. It quickly became apparent that there is an imperative need to commission this high-speed rail project that could bring enormous economic opportunities.
Working with a team of consultants comprises of business strategists from various disciplines, the client would like to devise an integrated socio economic and physical development plan that will maximize the value of investments of the high-speed rail project. This SEDAP shall be an economic corridor-based plan that comprises inter and intra hub sites and activities, taking into consideration the hub resources and physical limitation and restriction.
The socio-economic planning for high-speed rail project impacted towns and cities is not unique, however this is the first SEDAP in the world that provides a comprehensive integrated masterplan to cover the full alignment, stations and station hubs, across two countries prior to any infrastructure investment. In developing the SEDAP in this way, the benefits can be optimized, and station hubs planned to be complementary rather than competitive. The SEDAP essentially integrates the planning of economic and social development, rather than just incorporating the social element into the planning works as an afterthought.
Key Outcomes
The project team devised a comprehensive three steps approach that are interrelated to form a broader plan. It begins with a detailed comparative assessment of the current social and economic position to understand the available improvement opportunities along the railway corridor of the high-speed rail project which covered a number of nodes. The assessment includes social & economic research and analysis to identify existing conditions and possible opportunities for growth and development. This results in the identification of specific industry clusters which exist or could be introduced into a particular location, creating jobs, investment opportunity and local economic growth.
These industry clusters are then overlaid onto the physical assessment of the rail stations, which further examined the natural and man-made existing conditions, identified challenges and opportunities for development in the regional and station zones. The combination of cluster recommendations and physical opportunities resulted in a development plan for each station area in terms of the land-use mix, transportation connectivity as well as a preliminary development plan.
Ultimately, we quantified the potential economic benefits of the development plan in terms of GDP, investment value, and job creation to determine the scale of investment needed to deliver the development. This had helped the team to better curate where, when and what to spend on prior to the actual infrastructure investment, and ensure the opportunities are maximized through an integrated development. At the end of the project, the team had developed a basket of land value capture strategies to maximize the economic benefits from the development toward real estate, retail, transportation, as well as social benefits.
Important Notice
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*This project was delivered by the core team of 27Group during their tenure in a management consulting firm based at United Kingdom. While it may not deliver under 27Group, we hereby declare that the contents above and our involvement are authentic and genuine.
