With land fast becoming scarce, the government may soon dip into the massive land asset of the railways, which incidentally is known for the second largest land holding at 4.23 lakh hectares after the defence, for building Metro lines, schools and other public infrastructure. The Union Cabinet in its meeting this week is likely to give nod to a proposal to use railways land for Metro lines, Kendriya Vidyalayas and other schools to meet the shortfall in meeting obligations under the Right to Education Act (RTE).
The Kelkar Committee on fiscal consolidation in its report had suggested monetisation of the land bank of the government agencies for infrastructure augmentation. The railways through the Rail Development Authority has also been looking for utilising over 1,500 hectares of land through leasing to earn over `5,500 crores in immediate future.
“The proposal before the Union Cabinet meeting, if approved, will allow fast execution of Metro projects coming up in various urban centres. There is clear shortage of land in the urban centre, which can easily be addressed by leasing the railways lands,” said a senior official. Out of the 4.23 lakh hectare land of the railways, 3.78 lakh of them are under the operational usage, while 43,000 hectare is vacant.
The railways estimate that it could earn over `50,000 crore by utilising the vacant land for the commercial purposes.
The proposal before the Cabinet meeting also seeks transfer of land for building schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, as a number of state governments have claimed to have inadequate number of schools to meet the obligations under the RTE.
“The proposal also seeks giving railways land on lease to other public services utilities for building assets for the public services. This will allow the government to create public assets, while also ensuring that the railways land is not encroached upon,” added the official.
Nearly, 700 hectare of railways land have been encroached upon, stated the official. While facing financial constraints, the railways is looking for various options to generate additional revenues to fund its infrastructure augmentation programme.
Union minister of railways Pawan Kumar Bansal has stated that over `1,50,000 crore would be needed to complete all ongoing projects.