[1]The Sam Pitroda Committee, which was tasked to recommend ways and means to modernize the Indian Railways has suggested a total funding of Rs5,60,396 crores in the next five years and has advocated a ‘mission mode’ approach for focus areas.
The committee, which on Monday submitted its report to railway minister Dinesh Trivedi has recommended levying a modernisation surcharge on passengers and divestments of railway PSUs to generate funds.
The committee has recommended that Rs2,50,000 crores be raised from gross budgetary support, Rs2,01,805 crores from internal generation, Rs1,01,000 crores from leasing/borrowings, Rs2,29,024 crores from public-private partnership,
Rs24,000 crores from dividend rebate and Rs16,842 crores from Road Safety Fund.
Tracks and bridges, signalling, rolling stock, stations and terminals, land, dedicated freight corridors, high speed trains, review of existing and proposed projects, ICT, indigenous development, safety, funding, human resource and organisation are the 15 focus areas for which theimplementation of ‘mission mode’ approach has been favoured by the committee.
The chairman of the committee, Sam Pitroda, made the presentation on the modernization of Indian Railways from Chicago through video-conferencing.
His team has made 113 recommendations to overhaul railways.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/pitroda1jpgcropdisplayjpg-069