TN evinces interest to enter into MoU with Railway Ministry

Expressing interest to enter into an MoU with the Railway Ministry to set up SPV for implementing certain projects, the Tamil Nadu government today said land to be provided by it should be treated as its equity contribution to the SPV at market value.
Since the land is typically provided by state government, this should be treated as part of the state government's equity contribution to the SPV at market value, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said in his letter to the Railway Minister.
Matching equity contributions from the Railway Ministry could be in cash or in the form of land owned by the Railways or other central government departments, he said.

In the case of equity contributions in cash, there should be assurances that these contributions by both sides would be made in time to ensure that projects do not suffer delays due to lack of adequate funding. The governance structure should be well-balanced, with adequate participation by the state government, he said.
The state government would be willing in-principle to enter into an MOU to set up an SPV to promote three railway projects proposed in the Madurai-Tuticorin Industrial Corridor, he said.
Referring to Railway Minister's recent letter to states requesting them to come forward to partner with the Railways to form Special Purpose Vehicles for raising funds for the development of the rail network, the Chief Minister said the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board gave a clearance recently, which also approved the development of the 'Madurai Thoothukudi Industrial Corridor' as an integrated project.

The corridor included two sets of projects - industrial node development and trunk infrastructure projects. Three of the trunk infrastructure projects proposed under the Corridor are railway projects - the 'Chennai-Thoothukudi freight corridor, Chennai-Madurai-Kanniyakumari high speed passenger link and Coimbatore-Madurai high speed passenger link.'
Panneerselvam also specified certain projects and requested them to be considered and alloted funds in the upcoming Railway Budget.