Railways set up core group to monitor PPP projects

New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) In a move aimed at giving an impetus to modernisation of passenger amenities, the Railway Ministry will constitute a five-member Core Group for monitoring of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects related to development of 22 world class railway stations, including New Delhi station.

A ministry official today said the Core Group would set up clear timeframe for each of the 22 railway stations, which will be upgraded to world class stations in the first phase.

The five members of the Group, to be drawn from the Railway Board, are: Member (Engineering); Additional Member (Commercial); Adviser (Infrastructure) and Adviser (Finance). Adviser (Land and Amenities) will function as the Convener of the Group.

The Group will take stock of the progress and also devise a format for compiling a monthly progress report.

''The move is designed to give a fillip to the modernisation activities aimed at improving passenger amenities,'' he pointed out.

The Group will review and strengthen various related departments of the Railway Board to enable them to deliver results as per the targets laid down for PPP projects.

It will also formulate a list of preparatory activities to be completed by the Zonal Railways before any station is taken up for developing as world class and these would include the dedicated organisational set-up that needs to be created within the Zonal Railways for this purpose.

Earlier, the Prime Minister-headed Committee on Infrastructure (CoI) had approved the proposal for developing the New Delhi station into a world-class station through the PPP route before the Commonwealth Games, 2010.

In addition to New Delhi, 21 other stations are to be developed as world class stations. These are Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Anand Vihar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh, Chennai, Mumbai CST, Howrah, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mathura, Patna, Pune, Secunderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Varanasi and Gaya.

UNI