Thursday, 11 December 2014

Railway seeks FDI worth Rs 93,000 crore

Railway ministry seeks foreign direct investment worth Rs 93,000 crore for infra structure development.

According to Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar, the railways is going to hold two investor meets to apprise potential investors of the kind of models and projects on offer for participation.

The Rs 63,000-crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor project is the single largest. The other big ones include the Rs 14,000-crore CSTM-Panvel suburban corridor, to be implemented in public-private partnership (PPP), and the Rs 1,200-crore Kachrapara rail coach factory, besides multiple freight line, electrification and signaling projects.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor stretches 534 km and will be implemented on a design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) basis, with government-to-government cooperation. For the Kachrapara rail coach factory, the ministry has finalized the lowest price per coach as the bidding parameter. The factor is being planned to roll out 500 such coaches annually.

According to the Railway Board, the discussions at the previous investor meet surrounded the overview of five models of participative policy, framework of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts and sectoral guidelines for foreign and domestic investment. The ministry’s brass has also deliberated on a new model concession agreement under the PPP model and new projects like station development to be rolled out under PPP with investors.

Earlier, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said the ministry would put in place an “investor-friendly framework to transform the national transporter into an efficient organization, attract investment on a long-term sustainable basis and in three years make the railways better than what it is today.


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