22.9.11

Indian Railways plan a makeover



The government constituted an expert committee headed by Sam Pitroda on Wednesday to recommend ways and means to modernise Indian Railways. The focus of the panel, which is to submit its interim report in December, will be on modernization of tracks, signalling, rolling stock, stations and terminals. HDFC Bank chairman Deepak Parekh, former SBI chairman M S Verma, IIM-Ahmedabad professor Raghuram, IDFC managing director Rajiv Lal and Feedback Infrastructure Services chairman Vinayak Chatterjee will be members of the committee. “We are looking at the railways to be taken to the fourth generation. We have set up a committee which will look into the modernisation in railways,” railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said while announcing the decision to constitute the panel. He said the economy would grow at about 8% provided Indian Railways grow at 10% or 12%. The railways was and will be the engine of growth, he added. Referring to the Vision 2020 document, Pitroda said: “This document had envisaged modernisation. Now the time is ripe to take this vision for execution at a high speed. The basic ground work for modernisation was done during (former railway minister) Mamata Bannerjee’s regime.” The railways had earlier constituted a high-level committee on safety, under the chairmanship of nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, which will suggest ways to prevent rail accidents. Asked where the funds for modernisation would come from, Pitroda said: “We realise that when we talk about modernisation. If we want to improve the infrastructure, then railways cannot do that alone. Railways is capable of running trains. But investments have to come from private sector for modernisation of coaches, wagons and new track laying. We require private funding. We require massive funding.” The group will also explore the possibility of passenger trains running at over 170kmph on existing corridors with advanced riding comfort and safety. The fastest train in India, Bhopal Shatabdi, currently runs at 150 kmph.

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