The Railways Minister Mr. Dinesh Trivedi has called for a National Policy on Railways so that it can add to the country’s GDP and generate employment. Addressing Public Private Partnership Summit 2012 in New Delhi on Tuesday morning, he asserted that if India has to maintain a GDP of seven to eight percent, it must relook towards the growth of Railways.
Calling for automation of railways system to avoid accidents, the Minister said that accidents happen mostly due to human error.
Advocating a rebuild of the organisational structure of railways, Mr. Trivedi disclosed that the Railway Board will be expanded after the budget to make it customer oriented. He said a roadmap to this effect will be presented in the Railway budget.
Saying that safety will be his first and foremost concern, Mr. Trivedi said that two committees are already working on the issue for a complete overhaul.
Speaking on the occasion, Member Planning Commission Mr. B.K. Chaturvedi said that all allocation under PPP mode must be in a transparent manner and once the terms of allocation is fixed, it should not be changed. Stressing the need for a dispute resolution mechanism, Mr. Chaturvedi said that the disputes should be settled at the earliest.
During the 12th Five Year Plan, half of the one trillion dollar investment is targetted to be achieved through private sector investment.
It has been observed that while PPP projects in some sectors have displayed good progress, several others achieved only limited success. In the 11th Plan Private Partnership remained 80 percent while Public partnership was only 20 percent.
While Telecom, Oil and Gas Pipeline and Power Sector has seen largest private investment. Other areas like Railways, health, education and Urban Development are yet to get its due share.
