To streamline projects, Railway Ministry holds 'Nirman Samvad'

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In a bid to streamline procedures and remove bottlenecks to ensure fast track implementation of projects of the Indian Railways, the Ministry on Thursday held a day-long conclave named 'Nirman Samvad'.

"The conclave was held as a step to streamline procedures and remove bottlenecks to ensure the fast track implementation of projects on the railways," the Railway Ministry said in a release.

The conclave was organised by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL), a dedicated arm of Railway Ministry for fast track implementation of projects.

The Conclave was chaired by Minister Piyush Goyal, who held personal interaction with the participants.

The conclave was attended by the top management of 400 construction and consultation companies.

"The issues raised covered concerns on contract management, improving cash flows, execution of projects, expediting the inspection of various items to be procured from RDSO approved vendors," the ministry said.

The issues like adoption of FIDIC documents (The International Federation of Consulting Engineers) by railways, delay in acquisition of land, problems in obtaining licenses of minor minerals, suggestions for reducing the time and cost over-runs, expediting the payments of the contractors, risk sharing between the employer and the contractor, increased requirement of training of technical manpower, availability of traffic and power blocks, proper estimation of quantities at the time of inviting tenders were also discussed.

During the meeting the Railway Minister gave directions to the officials that the suggestions made by the participants should be followed up and necessary changes in the systems and procedures be made to ensure that the pace of project execution is improved to implement the Ministry's ambitious investment programme.

The Ministry said that during the 'Samvaad', six representatives from major construction and consultancy companies -- KEC International, Siemens, Larsen and Toubro, Systra MVA Consulting India Private Limited, Tata Projects Limited and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd gave presentations.

--IANS

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