Railways to set up Rs 35,000-cr fund to finance infra projects

Proposal for India Development Fund will be sent for Cabinet clearance within a month

Indian Railways is planning to set up Railways of India Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 35,000 crore to finance railway infrastructural projects. The proposal will be sent for Cabinet clearance within a month. 

“We are setting a fund for the railway sector as a whole. All the companies working in the rail sector are eligible to draw on that fund, including private companies,” said Hanish Yadav, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, addressing a press conference to present the three-year achievements by the ministry.  As per Railway roadmap, the fund will be set up with contributions from pension funds and domestic and multilateral borrowings agencies. The fund intends to raise Rs 35,000 crore, which will be invested in railway sector over a period of seven years. 

“The fund can be set up by contribution from pension funds, international pension funds, domestic borrowings, multilateral borrowings. It will have both equity and debt financing,” Yadav added. All special purpose vehicles and concessionaires will be able to draw from the fund. Though railways will be the promoter, it will not have a majority share in this initiative.