Indian Railways to set up ₹35,000 crore fund for projects

THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI, MAY 26, 2017 

The Railway Ministry will send a proposal for the Union Cabinet approval later this month to set up a Railways of India Development Fund with a corpus of ₹35,000 crore to finance railway projects.

“This fund will not be set up for Indian Railways alone but for the railway sector as a whole in the country. All the companies, including private players and railway station developers, working in the rail sector of India are also eligible to draw on that fund,” said Hanish Yadav, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, at a press conference here highlighting the three years’ achievements of the Railway Ministry.

“We will keep a minority stake in the Fund so that it could be worked upon in a professional manner. All special purpose vehicles and concessionaires will be able to draw from the fund in the form of equity and debt,” Railway Board Executive Director (Finance) Namita Mehrotra said.

The Fund intends to raise ₹35,000 crore to be invested over seven years in the rail sector. The fund may be set up through contribution from domestic and international pension funds along with domestic and multilateral borrowings agencies.

The Indian Railways had last year undertaken a scoping study for setting up a Railways of India Development Fund, for financing projects in entire railway sector by pooling funds from pension, insurance and wealth.