Railway ecosystem can create a million jobs within a year: Piyush Goyal

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that a million jobs can be created in less than 12 months in the railway ecosystem.

"My own sense is that jobs may not necessarily be directly in the railways, but certainly through engaging people and working in a variety of areas across the ecosystem, not less than a million jobs can be created in less than 12 months, in only railways and the ecosystem around the railways," Goyal said at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Goyal added that the rail track and safety maintenance programme reinforced by the government would alone create two lakh jobs.

"If I look at the amount of investment in the pipeline and activate that, it will create 2 to 2.5 lakh jobs in existing projects," Goyal said.

The railway minister also remarked that India has become the world's best place for investments post abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and with most of the FDI being placed under the automatic route.

Stating that decades of robust growth contribute to laying a strong foundation for the country, Goyal informed that the government is working to change the growth narrative with the aim to make it more technologically driven.

He stressed that a change would require empowering people and creating an enabling environment, which can only be achieved by changing the mindset of the people and cutting through bureaucracy.