Suresh Prabhu, the Railway Minister, announced to a gathering, in a function held at Pernem Railway Station, where had gone to flag off the train between Pernem and Karwar, that his ministry will form SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) with 17 states in the country to develop the railway infrastructure.
The Minister said that they are making special purpose vehicles with each state separately and there are 17 states that have shown interest in this idea. He also added that it would be a joint project. He stated that Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern states are not a part of this scheme.
In a candid interview, Suresh Prabhu spilled some more details regarding this plan. “We will create special purpose vehicles for 17 states. These states as well as the centre will invest the capital. All this will be used for the development of railway infrastructure.” The Minister recently went out to meet some biggies of corporate and banking companies in Maharashtra and expects an investment of Rs 10,000 crore for upcoming 5 years from them for this company.
He also said that all the states are gradually accepting the idea and are interested in signing. “Together we can develop additional structure and also extra bandwidth,” the Minister said. Other than this, he also declared 250 additional trains especially for the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival, which is celebrated across Maharashtra’s Konkan region and Goa in September.
“The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is the most celebrated and important festival in Goa, and we have decided to run around 250 additional trains to clear off the rush.” A lot of railways divisions like the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd, Southern railway, Central railway and many others will be pitching in to commence these special trains.
Not just this but the Railway Minister has more in store for the rail sector. He also announced that 17 stations on KRCL route will be having Wi-Fi services and escalators, including Margao, Ratnagiri, Kankavali and Thivim stations. Besides these, he has also proposed the plan of putting water vending machines at the stations to help the passengers. The bottled water rate is moderate and affordable to all.
The Minister also had meetings in Mumbai few days ago where he let out his idea to modernise Indian Railways and asked reputed public and private sector companies to fund some amounts in order to help in the betterment of the rail sector.
With all this ongoing, we are sure that the Indian Railways are going to become better and better for passengers.