Indian Railways to invest Rs. 2,00,000 crore during 11th Five Year Plan

Railways To Encourage ‘Ppp’ Model For Non Core Sectors

Railway Minister Visits Business School ‘Insead’ In Singapore

It has been decided to invest Rs. 2,00,000 crore for the modernization, capacity increase and completion of new projects of Indian Railways during the 11th Five Year Plan. This was stated by the Minister of Railways Shri Lalu Prasad while addressing the students and faculty members of International Business School, INSEAD, during his current visit to Singapore this week. He said that Indian Railways have decided to invite Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the non core sector for setting up of logistic parks, wagon investment schemes, wagon leasing schemes and also to participate in the setting up of more than 7000 agricultural outlets throughout the country. He said that Indian Railways would encourage the introduction of PPP model for setting up of new factories for production of wagons, coaches and locomotives.

The Minister said that Indian Railways is going to upgrade 26 major railways stations as world class stations throughout the country including four metropolitan cities. There will be separate departure and arrival facilities for passenger to decongest existing crowds at station complex besides other modernized passenger amenities like world class waiting/rest-rooms, multi-level parking, malls etc.

Shri Lalu further said that after earning a surplus of Rs 25,000 crore during the year 2007-08 and with its operating ratio of 76 per cent, the Indian Railway have shown achievement which is much better than several top fortune 500 world companies. He said that after taking new initiatives in freight sector, Indian Railways have carried 238 million tonnes of additional freight and earned more than Rs. 14,000 crore additional freight revenue. In view of the increasing demand for freight and to reduce the congestion on existing railway lines, the Indian Railways have decided to construct Dedicated Freight Corridors. In the first phase, the western corridor from Delhi to Mumbai and eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata will be constructed and in the second phase, Dedicated Freight Corridor will be constructed to link other parts of the country which would result in bringing out new revolution in the field of rail freight transportation. He said for ‘turnaround of Indian Railway’, the credit goes to its 14 lakh employees who in a team spirit worked with full dedication and made Indian Railways to earn billions despite reduction in passenger fares. The Minister said that this great turnaround was achieved without retrenching any employee and without increasing the passenger fare, rather the fares have been reduced.

Shri Lalu Prasad said that our vision is to make Indian Railways world’s number one railway network and the days are not far away when the Indian Railways will be the best railways in the world. The Railway Minister is currently on a week-long tour to Singapore and Malaysia.