Railways needs investment for operations, modernisation of Rolling stock : Prabhu

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Railways minister Suresh Prabhu recently said the railway needs to grow for which investment is required. Investment is required for decongesting the highly congested network and also for operations, maintenance and modernisation of Rolling stock. A Safety Fund has been created to clear all backlogs and modernise the safety infrastructure, he said.

Addressing aa knowledge sharing workshop organised the Ministry of Railways and the World Bank on March 29, 2017, on leveraging private investment in railways, Prabhu said there are huge expectations from Railways. He felt that compared to previous years, there has been improvement in investment but by itself the investment requirements of Indian Railways are huge. “There should not be concerns regarding servicing of the investments in Railways as being a transportation organisation, it has continuous cash flows. Recently, we were successful in attracting FDI for our loco factories through a completely transparent bidding process,” he said, according to a PIB release issued on March 31, 2017.

“There are possibilities of end to end logistics support. Unless logistics and transport come together, enhancement of business value would not be possible. Partnerships should be the guiding principle for the future. Railways have partnered with state governments to form Joint Venture Companies,” Prabhu said. He was categorical that Indian Railways welcomes all long and  short term investors and the multilateral and bilateral agencies to partner with Indian Railways. The objective workshop was to showcase the projects that provide opportunities to the private sector for investing their funds in Indian Railways.

The Country Head of the World Bank. Junaid Ahmad said that Indian Railways is an important player in the economy and the backbone of India’s transportation sector. He opined that in the future growth story of the country, Indian Railways will have an important role to play.