Railways looks for innovative financing, FDI

Faced with a plethora of challenges, railways is making all efforts to tap innovative methods of financing, besides generating internal surplus and attracting FDIs.
Apart from the proposed Rs 97,636 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor project, feasibility study is on for Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, and Delhi-Kolkata corridors, the Economic Survey for 2015-16 tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
"Indian Railways (IR) is faced with a number of challenges. For speedy capacity creation, IR recognises the importance of enhancing project execution capabilities.
"Considering enormity of resources required for plan investment in rail infrastructure, and given the limitation of public resources, efforts are on to generate sufficient internal surplus and tap innovative methods of financing," it said.

The focus is on prioritising investments in important areas like dedicated freight corridors, high-speed rail, high capacity rolling stock, last mile rail linkages, port connectivity and attracting private investments and FDI, it said.
A special purpose vehicle with 50 per cent equity participation from the Ministry of Railways and 50 per cent from the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat will be set up for the 508 km high-speed Mumbai-Ahmedabad train project.

It will be implemented with Japanese technical and financial assistance.
"The total construction cost of the project is approximately Rs 70,915 crore, including land cost. Project completion cost is approx Rs 97,636 crore. Average per km cost of construction works out to be Rs 140 crore," it said.

The survey said the project will be implemented in about seven years from the commencement of construction.
Japanese official development assistance will be Rs 79,165 crore (81 per cent of project cost) for 50 years with 0.1 per cent interest and a 15-year moratorium.
"Total length of the proposed corridor will be 508 km between the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai and Sabarmati / Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Sixty-four per cent of the corridor will be constructed on embankment," it said, adding that the stretch will have 12 stations between Mumbai and Sabarmati.
Its maximum design speed will be 350 kmph with an operating speed of 320 kmph and it will have 10-car trains (750 seats) initially and 16-car trains (1,200 seats) later.

The project will see 35 trains daily each way by 2023, which will go up to 105 trains by 2053.
Besides the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, feasibility
studies for the Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai and Delhi-Kolkata corridors are underway.
The survey said the key focus areas for railways include fast tracking of capacity augmentation, network modernisation, improvement in asset utilisation, modernisation of rolling stock, improving the quality and pricing of services and improving energy efficiency in operations.
Priority areas also include making railways more tourist friendly with cleanliness and e-booking with special quotas for foreign visitors.
During 2014-15, freight and passenger earnings, and gross traffic receipts of the railways grew by 12.7 per cent over 2013-14.

"Gross traffic receipts of the Railways were estimated to increase to Rs 1.84 lakh crore in 2015-16, as against Rs 1.57 lakh crore in 2014-15.
"The operating ratio of the Railways, which stood at 91.3 per cent in 2014-15, and net revenue as a proportion of capital-at-charge, which was 7.0 per cent in the previous year, are also likely to see improvements in 2015-16," it said.
The freight carried showed an increase of 9 million tonnes during April-November 2015 over the freight traffic of 2014-15.
On freight performance, it said during 2015-16 (up to November) IR carried 720.17 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic, as against a budget target of 775.77 million tonnes.

This was up from the 711.19 million tonnes of freight carried during 2014-15 (up to November) by 8.98 million tonnes or 1.26 per cent.
About initiatives taken, it mentions measures like improving passenger amenities, infrastructure and services, and initiatives under Make in India.
Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) over 1,098 route kilometres (RKM) has been laid, the survey said. Cumulatively, 48,818 RKM optical fibre has been commissioned by IR, enabling a high-speed communication network.
"Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, has developed a first-of-its-kind stainless steel three-phase energy-efficient AC-AC transmission 1600 HP DEMU train set. Mobile application for freight operations, Parichaalan, has been introduced," it said.

IR has also installed solar panels on rooftops of coaches for train lighting system in two broad gauge coaches and four narrow gauge coaches plying on the Pathankot-Joginder Nagar section in Kangra Valley, and 14 narrow gauge coaches plying on the Kalka-Shimla section on trial basis, it said.
Tenders and policy guidelines for 50 MW solar plants on rooftops of IR buildings have been issued, it added.