The Hindu Business Line : Rlys urged to leverage revenue to raise funds from market

REITERATING that the Indian Railways need a tariff regulator, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said on Monday that the Railways should leverage its revenues to raise money from the market to modernise and expand its facilities.

"We need to have more money and it is not going to be available in the Budget; therefore, revenues should be collateralised in order to borrow a significant amount," Dr Ahluwalia said at a seminar on `Public-private partnership in development of rail infrastructure'.

There should be some organic change to ensure that money is actually flowing to the projects that are bankable and "the only real guarantee for that is if you ideally have completely non-recourse funding," he said.

Since the current legal framework prevented the Railways from borrowing directly, the sector has to find ways to tap private resources for its development projects, Dr Ahluwalia said, observing that public-private partnership included joint activity wherein suppliers of services brought in finances from the private sector.

Dr Ahluwalia added the Railways needed a Rail Tariff Authority, which would rationalise fares and also take care of cross subsidies.

Speaking at the seminar, the Minister of State for Railways, Mr Naranbhai Rathwa, called for change in rate-of-return proposition for balanced development of infrastructure. He said Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd had undertaken 56 bankable projects with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore, which would be completed within the stipulated time frame.

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Rlys urged to leverage revenue to raise funds from market