Railways plans road shows abroad to woo investors

In a bid to woo foreign investors, the Indian Railways is planning to organise road shows in select countries showcasing opportunities for investment in the rail sector.

Inviting private participation in the state-owned transporter, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, at an investors' meet held on Friday, called for framework to be put in place to facilitate sustainable long term investment in rail sector.

"Road shows will be held in a few selected countries like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, US, France and Belgium to attract investors in the rail sector," Chairman Railway Board (CRB) Arunendra Kumar said.

He said the Railways is looking for new technology, funds and best practices from overseas.

It is targeting a significant private investment to strengthen coal linkage and port connectivity to decongest the passenger rail network and ensure smooth supply of coal for power plants.

Addressing the meet, Prabhu noted that the Railways has the obligation to balance the interests of stake-holders like railway employees, its users, investors and the government so as to make it a vibrant and efficient enterprise.

He said while the Railways will continue to be owned by the Government, private participation will be welcomed in the infrastructure sector of the transporter and discussed various proposals and possibilities for domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) in infrastructure and maintenance activities.

Seeking cooperation from stakeholders to work together to make Railways much better than what it is today, he called for framework to be put in place to facilitate sustainable long term investment in rail sector.

Prabhu also explained sectoral guidelines pertaining to FDI and domestic investment.

During the meeting, presentations on various opportunies in identified areas were made even as companies raised queries on issues involving funding of the projects.

Overview of framework for PPP and FDI, station development, freight marketing and framework for rolling stock Production Units were shown in the presentations.

Some officials of companies pointed out issues about the delay in decision-making process and inconsistency on the part of Railways.

"We told them that we are ready to make changes in order to address their difficulties," Kumar said.

A booklet of Framework for Participative Models of Rail Connectivity & Domestic & Foreign Direct Investment was released on the occasion.

CEOs and senior representaivies of about 65 top companies including Reliance, Tata Infra, HSBC, L&T, Siemens, Adani Port, GMR Highways, NMDC, Gammon and IDFC attended the meet.

Participants at the meet also included representatives from Chambers of Commerce, Railway PSUs, PSUs of Ministry of Heavy Industry, investment consultants, investment bankers, infrastructure sector, construction sector, port sector, rolling stock manufacturers, and raw material manufacturers.