Railways looking for private players to speed up proj

New Delhi, Oct 7: Privatisation is buzzing rather loudly in the corridors of Rail Bhavan, the nerve centre of the Railway Ministry.

Having travelled some distance on the path of privatisation, Indian Railways today spelled out new initiatives and offered an array of exciting opportunities to private players to make its incredible turnaround an enduring success.

Making a power point presentation on 'Building Railway Infrastructure --- Challenges and Opportunities' at the Infrastructure Conference at Vigyan Bhavan, Railway Board Chairman J P Batra said the institutional mechanism for facilitation of Public Private Partnership was already in place with the creation of a dedicated PPP Cell in the Board.

''A decision to allow private operators in container services has already been taken and a Model Concession Agreement (MCA) is under finalisation,'' Mr Batra told the conference, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Besides Rs 22,000 crore Dedicated Freight Corridor Project, the avenues for PPP include world class railway stations, passenger amenities and commercial utilisation of 43,000 hectares of land available with the Railways.

Mr Batra said some projects such as freight terminals and logistics parks would be set up exclusively with the assistance of the private sector.

Operation of container trains and setting up of SPVs for manufacturing locomotives, coaches and wagons and hospitality, tourism and catering sectors were other areas, which were unfolded before private players for their participation.

Public sector undertakings of the Railway Ministry, such as IRCTC and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), and Freight Marketing Directorate of the Board are already working to rope in private investment in respective areas.

Among the other opportunities for PPP, Mr Batra listed super-speciality hospitals, construction of private sidings, inland container depots, parcel services and rail side warehouses.

In addition, there are wagon investment scheme and port connectivity and other infrastructure projects through RVNL, which are to be built on the PPP model.

UNI