Thrust on ongoing projects, says Railway Minister

Thrust on ongoing projects, says Railway Minister
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Highlights

Union Minister for Railways DV Sadananda Gowda visited the city to review the South Central Railway’s (SCR) performance as part of the zonal meetings being undertaken.

  • Says FDI to be only in operations, infrastructure and bullet trains
  • Wagon workshops to come up in Kazipet and Kurnool

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Railways DV Sadananda Gowda visited the city to review the South Central Railway’s (SCR) performance as part of the zonal meetings being undertaken.

Clearing air on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the Raillway Minister told media persons that FDI would be in operations and to develop infrastructure and in areas such as high speed trains, bullet trains and freight corridor. He said the response from private players was satisfactory and a model concession agreement would be ready within a month. Gowda said private players would be for welcomed commercial and logistics purpose. Lands could be leased out for 35-40 year period.
Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda addressing the media in Hyderabad on Friday.  PK Srivastava General Manager, South Central Railway also seen
Stating that there were no new projects in the railway budget his year, the Minister said the focus would be on completing the ongoing projects. The budget allotted for SCR for the year 2014-15 is Rs 2,106 crore. The overall budget for 4,225 kms of ongoing projects was Rs 21,022 crore out of which 958 kms were completed and the amount incurred was Rs 2,860 crore. The projects include new lines, doubling work, signals, workshops and passenger amenities.

Twenty nine surveys were announced and eight would be completed this year, informed the Railway Minister. He said wagon workshop at Kazipet would come up with a capacity of 1200 wagons per year. And another workshop at Kurnool too would come up. The Indian Railways is undertaking upgradation of railway stations and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government. A Railway University is also planned informed the minister. The Railways is also planning to develop select railway stations that would be totally solar powered.

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