Modernisation, capacity augmentation, better governance and laying out a roadmap for partnerships with state governments and private sector have been the principal building blocks for this year’s Rail Budget, according to Hemant Kanoria, Chairman and Managing Director of Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd.

According to him, the Budget has tried to make the Railways future ready and for that it has set a substantial capital expenditure target. 

Hopeful of a “new chapter of PPP in rail projects” unfolding, Kanoria maintained that the Minister has been candid in his admission that previous schemes for attracting private investments have not quite worked.

He, however pointed out that a cap-ex plan of Rs 1.1 lakh crore for FY-16 and focus is on capacity augmentation; the budgetary support from Centre alone would not be enough.

The Minister expects to tap foreign resources like Insurance Funds and Pension Funds and also raise money from bilateral and multilateral funds. Equally important, he said, would be the ability to tap resources from funding institutions in countries like Japan and other multilateral institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Even the domestic private sector companies are likely to get more active in railway PPP projects once the revised policies take care of the existing concern areas.

Apart from welcoming the Budget for keeping the passenger fares intact, Kanoria also was happy at the steps taken towards improving customer experience. Even the fact that those costs will come at an extra cost was welcomed.

The proposal to set up dedicated institutes for fundamental research towards advancement of coach design, rail tracks, improvement of rail technology, etc. and for upskilling rail personnel are steps that would go a long way in modernising the skill-sets of the organisation, the SREI CMD, 

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