The railways have ruled out any plan of corporatisation, which the Rakesh Mohan Committee, set up to chart a roadmap for rail services, had recommended.
"The British experience of corporatisation, privatisation and subsequent re-nationalisation is a lesson for us. The Rakesh Mohan Committee's recommendation for corporatisation is not feasible for us," S C Gupta, member (electrical) of the Railway Board said at a conference -- Railways on the growth path -- organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi on Tuesday.
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Vijayalaksmi Vishwanathan, financial commissioner of the Railway Board, said the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, the special purpose vehicle set up to upgrade the 10,000 km track of the golden quadrilateral and its diagonals and to promote port-hinterland connectivity in the country, would be wound up after it completed the 62 projects assigned to it. It would, however, continue to service the liabilities incurred by it.
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The railways' freight load target for 2004-05 is expected to be 560 million tonnes. The current year's Budget target of 540 MT is likely to be overshot Freight movement by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan will be 610-615 MT The projects under the RVNL are likely to be executed by special purpose vehicles under the build-own-transfer model |
The railways' freight load target for 2004-05 could be 560 million tonnes, as the current year's Budget target of 540 MT was likely to be overshot. "Next year we expect extra loading of 15-20 MT," Viswanathan said. She said freight movement by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan would be 610-615 MT. RVNL had been set up to meet the growing capacity demand.
"Most of the projects under RVNL are likely to be executed by SPVs under the build-own-transfer model. The access charge that the Railways would have to pay to the SPVs would go into an escrow account, so that the lenders to the project were assured of debt-servicing," R K Jain, group general manager, RVNL, said.
Industry representatives have asked the government to set a rail tariff regulatory authority to fix charges on commercial considerations.
A demand has also been placed to start scheduled freight trains and create dedicated freight corridors. "Railways lose 15 paise for moving a passenger over a km, while moving a tonne of cargo over a km earns them 16 paise," E A Kshirsagar, director, A F Ferguson & Co said.