Railways plan to outsource track layingK P Narayana Kumar / New Delhi April 18, 2006The Railways are considering outsourcing construction of tracks for the 2,700-km dedicated freight corridor project. Under the plan, the railways will identify stretches of up to 100 km and invite companies to bid for laying tracks in them on a build-operate-transfer basis.This way, the railways will avoid a possible funds crunch for this Rs 22,000 crore project. The railways appear to have followed the National Highways Authority of India for funding highway development project. Under the proposal, the consortiums which lay tracks in these stretches will be paid annuities and user charges by the railways with concession periods ranging between 25 and 30 years. The east and west freight corridors may be divided into stretches of roughly 100 km each. The project cost of every 100 km stretch is expected to be about Rs 1,000 crore.The railways, after discussing the proposal with the Planning Commission and other stakeholders, will decide whether to adopt this mode of funding or not. If the proposal is found to be acceptable, then it will be included in a Cabinet note being prepared for the formation of a special purpose vehicle for the dedicated freight corridor.Since the ministry has already issued licences to private container trains, many of the container trains that will ply these tracks laid by the consortiums will also be privately owned.
