Railways to sign JV with Karnataka soon: Prabhu

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said a new joint venture will be signed with Karnataka government to create new avenues to develop railways in the state.

"I had a discussion with the chief minister of Karnataka... we will soon formalise an agreement with Karnataka government that we create a new entity, a joint venture between Indian Railways and the government," he said at the closing ceremony of Invest Karnataka 2016 Global Investors Meet (GIM).

The ownership of the new entity will be divided between the state government and the railways, and the agreement will be on the lines railways has done with 16 states already, he said.

Prabhu said railways is creating some more lines for Karnataka which will be inaugurated soon and highlighted that the outlay in the last budget was the largest ever done for Karnataka.

On the demand of suburban railway lines for Bengaluru city, he said the demand needs to be thoroughly studied to determine how to go about it.

Prabhu said developing railway stations as icons in select cities is another initiative being taken up and revealed there are 400 top class railways stations in India.

He pointed out that Bengaluru city railway station is operating beyond its capacity and getting crowded.

"We can develop a satellite railway station, the state government should give us land," he said.

At the GIM, he appealed to the private industry to actively participate in railway projects as every rupee spent on railways will reap five fold benefits.