Indian Railways seeks partnership with industry

The Indian Railways on Wednesday asked the industry to partner with it for the "complete transformation" of the railway network in the country.

Addressing the fourth Global Rail Convention under the aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here, Railway Board Member (Rolling Stock) Ravindra Gupta said close to 6,000 coaches would be refurbished in near future and this offered a huge opportunity as it involves investments of thousands of crores of rupees.

He added that new railway lines would also be added to the existing network of the railways which also offered "tremendous opportunities" for the private sector.

Railway Board Executive Director (Finance) Namita Mehrotra pointed out that safety and expansion of railways had undergone "massive changes" in the last two and a half years.

"The railways would spend Rs 1.31 lakh crore alone on its safety in next few years. It would also make huge investments on creating dedicated freight corridors for goods trains where their cost of operations would be minimum," she said.

Czech Republic Ambassador Milan Hovorka and Deputy to the French Ambassador Claire Thuaudet offered expertise of their countries for efficient transformation of the Indian Railways at economic cost.

--IANS

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