New Delhi: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to present a White Paper in Parliament on finances and projects in the ailing national transporter. "The White Paper on Railways will mainly look at issues such as dynamic revenue earning model, freight and fare rationalisation, and capacity augmentation," said a senior Railway Ministry official.
All directorates have given inputs to prepare the status of their ongoing projects and pending ones, reasons for delays and solutions, the official said. The report is likely to be presented during the the Budget Session of Parliament. The then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had presented a White Paper in December 2009 and a Vision 2020 for the transporter.
However, this time, Prabhu is mainly focusing on the tapping more revenue channels. A committee led by former Banking and Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal, constituted by Prabhu, has already submitted recommendations on the new fund raising and revenue models for the railways.
676 projects worth Rs 1,57,883 crore have been sanctioned. Of these, only 317 projects could be completed and 359 projects remain to be completed which will now require as much as Rs 1,82,000 crore. In the last Rail Budget, 30 priority projects (which include all types of projects) were selected according to need and availability of funds.
The Minister has also taken steps for forming special purpose vehicles with the state governments for execution of rail projects in their respective states. According to the plan, the coming Rail Budget will have detailed action plan consisting of long and short-term measures.
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