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Posted - 07/12/2009 : 00:03:56
Mamta on fast-track to implement railway budget promises
Mohua Chatterjee, TNN 12 July 2009, 02:08am IST
NEW DELHI: Eager to ensure that her budget promises take off and start showing tangible results before the assembly elections in West Bengal in
2011, railway minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress chief, has gone on the fast track, holding meetings with industry representatives to work out PPP and other revenue generating projects for the railways.
In a bid to work on her "pro-industry and doer" image, she has already announced the setting up an expert committee headed by Amit Mitra of FICCI to plan implementable ways of using railway land for industry and other public-private-partnership (PPP) projects.
While she held a meeting with Mitra last week, Mamata also plans a meeting with industry captains soon and is slated to meet Wipro chief Azim Premji next week.
Banerjee is also out to prove that she can generate growth without going into complete privatisation. She has already appointed Sam Pitroda as the head of a technical committee to look into the optic fibre laying project alongside railway lines, which will generate revenue for the railways.
Asked about the committee, Mitra told TOI, "The template for the terms of reference for this expert committee has been laid down broadly by the minister in her budget speech. She has stated clearly that this committee will look into innovative financing and business plans for the PPP projects and joint venture projects that she has announced in Parliament."
Elaborating the role of the committee, Mitra said such PPP projects -- about 8 to 10 that the minister has already mentioned, including large and small ones -- are being looked at. "The committee will attempt to convert the vision of the minister into implementable project structures. The idea to create business plans with regard to PPP and JVs is the main focus."
The land bank that Banerjee has talked about using for revenue generation is a huge and feasible idea, feel industry experts, though the implementation will need a lot of effort. However, what has excited the industry is perhaps the fact that the minister is focused on getting it done and at the earliest.
PPP projects like using railway land for cold storages and warehouse facilities and going in for refrigerated bogies in trains for perishable food items, will benefit not only the railways which earn revenue from it, but also small producers of fruits, vegetables, fish and poultry, and finally it adds to nation's total GDP since it can do away with the almost 40% of wastage of fruit and vegetable produces of the country's total produce. In fact, Mitra says, "The 40% that is wasted works out to be the total amount of produce of fruits and vegetables in the UK." This explains how much of wastage can be avoided if railway land is utilised for cold storages and warehouse facilities and if refrigerated trains are run.
Interestingly, the deadline that Banerjee seems to have put for herself to achieve an image that could help her face the assembly polls, has attracted industry which is looking at it as opportunity where projects will move ahead at a fast pace.
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