Taking note of under-investment being a persistent problem for the Indian Railways, the Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu has unveiled a comprehensive plan for modernisation of the Railways, said Ajay Bhatt, leader of the Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly while interacting with media persons on Thursday.
The Minister also suggested several innovative financing mechanisms, including setting up special purpose vehicles for raising long-term investment from pension funds and multilateral agencies.
He set an ambitious target of investing Rs8.5 lakh crores in the Railways over the next five years. Finally, the large number of measures to improve customers’ satisfaction shows that the Railways is becoming a more customer centric institution. Measures to provide a smooth ticketing experience, a clean environment and safe and healthy food are being taken care of.
With 23 million passengers travelling daily on Indian Railways, these measures are of paramount importance, said the CII release. Prabhu’s plans to provide training facilities and better living conditions for the 1.4 million people employed by the Railways are also crucial for the provision of better services.
Welcoming the various announcements on capacity augmentation, including decongestion of existing networks, fast-tracking sanctioned works and commissioning new works, Bhatt said. Speedier implementation of the dedicated freight corridors is particularly welcome. Efforts to encourage PPP such as in the logistics space are also good steps.
The private sector can also be involved in areas such as development of private freight terminals and wagon leasing and investments. It is encouraging that Prabhu has also mentioned the provision of Railway land to private developers for development of storage facilities, Bhatt added.