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Over Rs 1 lakh crore for Rly modernisation

LARGER SHARE: THE UNION Minister for Railways, Mr Lalu Prasad, at the Economic Editors conference in the Capital on Wednesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Nov. 8

The Union Railway Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad, said on Wednesday that the Railways has increased its share in cement and steel transportation in the first six months of this fiscal.

The railways share in steel and cement transportation had come down to 30-35 per cent by 2003-04 against a high of 70-90 per cent in 1991, he said. During April-September, while production of cement and steel increased by 8-10 per cent in the country, the rail traffic for these commodities registered an increase of 35-40 per cent.

"In the first six months, our share in cement and steel transportation has increased by 6-8 per cent," the Minister said at the Economic Editors' conference here.

He also added that over the next five years, over Rs 1 lakh crore would be spent on modernisation of railway signalling, track and rolling stock so that modern prices could be provided to passenger and freight customers at low prices by bringing down the unit cost.

RLDA

The Ministry of Railways has recently notified the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), which would manage the railway land. The RLDA has been constituted with Mr R.R. Jharuhar as the Chairman.

On the freight corridor, the Railways has said that the special purpose vehicle (SPV) will plan, construct, own and maintain the dedicated freight corridor under a design, build, construct, maintain and transfer concession to be given by the Ministry of Railways for a period of 30 years after the start of commercial operations of the full corridor. The concession may be extended further by mutual agreement.

More Stories on : Railways | Steel | Cement

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