Railways keen on building partnerships with companies to improve

Prabhu asserted at day-long session on "Opportunities in Indian Raiways" that, "Although the government is making efforts, partnerships will be the key in this endeavour."

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April 5, 2016

Multi-stakeholder partnerships was the key to improving Indian Railways at the earliest, said Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]P[/dropcap]rabhu said at the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that, They have a comprehensive plan to transform Indian Railways. Doing it at the earliest involves multi-stakeholder partnerships in its various areas.

Prabhu stressed the need to increase capacity exponentially with sustained investments and admitted that providing a superior rail experience was a challenge.

Prabhu asserted while addressing captains of the industry at the day-long session on “Opportunities in Indian Raiways – scope for partnerships” that, “Although the government is making efforts, partnerships will be the key in this endeavour.”

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]C[/dropcap]iting partnerships with Japan in modernisation and expansion, the minister said many agreements were signed to leverage opportunities for a quantum leap in technology absorption.

On financial viability of the railways, Prabhu said efforts were on to augment non-rail revenue by monetising assets and modernising stations through public-private participation, multilateral organisations, self-help groups and others.

Railway board member (traffic) Mohammad Jamshed said the performance parameters of railways had improved in fiscal 2015-16 despite headwinds.

Rajiv Lall, chairman of the CII National Committee on Infrastructure Financing and IDFC Ltd., spoke on the corporatisation of railways.

Notes:
1. IANS