400 stations, 90 passenger trains; assets to fetch Rs 1.52 trillion

A total of 400 stations, 90 passenger trains, railway stadiums and colonies, and the famed Konkan and hill railways are among the assets identified by the government for monetisation.

Railway is the second biggest sector, after road, identified in the ambitious national monetisation plan. Monnetisation of railways' brownfield infrastructure assets would garner over Rs 1.52 lakh crore in four years till fiscal 2025.

Railway assets would contribute 26 per cent of the Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday.

Key rail assets identified for monetisation during FY22-25 include 400 railway stations, 90 passenger trains, 1 route of 1,400 km railway track, 741 km of Konkan Railway, 15 railway stadiums and selected railway colonies, 265 railway owned good-sheds, and four hill railways.

In the four years time, monetising railway stations and passenger train operations is expected to fetch about Rs 76,250 crore and Rs 21,642 crore, respectively.

Monetising 673 kms of Dedicated Freight Corridor would fetch Rs 20,178 crore, while Rs 18,700 crore is estimated from track, signalling, and overhead equipment (Track OHE) InvIT.

Monetisation value of Konkan Railway is estimated at Rs 7,281 crore, while for hill railways it is Rs 630 crore.

The identified good-sheds for monetisation are expected to garner Rs 5,565 crore, while for railway colonies redevelopment the amount would be Rs 2,250 crore.

"The Indicative Monetisation Value is estimated at Rs 1,52,496 crore over the NMP period FY2022-25," the NMP document said.

Of this, Rs 17,810 crore would be monetised this fiscal, Rs 57,222 crore in the next financial year (2022-23), Rs 44,907 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 32,557 crore in 2024-25.