Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has outlined various environment-friendly measures being taken by the public transporter to provide low cost sustainable transportation to the country.
Speaking at the World Bank Conference in Washington, Prabhu underlined that any sustainable transport solution has to be economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally friendly.
"The Indian Railways has embarked on transforming its energy mix by using renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy, and is undertaking energy audits to improve efficiency to meet its sustainability targets," he said at the plenary session of World Bank conference on Transport and Cities - Key Drivers for Meeting Climate Goals.
Prabhu is on a three-day visit to US since January 13 on the request of the World Bank, a release said.
Advocating multi-model transportation policy, he said it is needed to create an integrated transportation ecosystem where rail and road networks complement each other.
In his high level meetings with the World Bank and IFC officials, Prabhu discussed the Indian Railways' efforts to expand, modernize, decentralize decision making, improve efficiency, meet customer expectations, move to clean energy, introduce greater transparency through e-tendering and change attitudes and mind sets.
He made a presentation to the senior leadership of the World Bank Group separately on the new initiatives of his Ministry and how the World Bank could partner with Railways.
Both the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) are working closely with Indian Railways to help it achieve its formidable targets.
Prabhu also met the US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx to discuss enhanced bilateral engagement in the transportation sector and noted the immense possibilities for knowledge sharing, technology tie-ups and business cooperation between the two countries in the sector.
In his meeting with the Chairman and President of the US
EXIM Bank Fred P Hochberg, he discussed the possibility of structuring an India specific financing model to take advantage of upcoming investment and business opportunities in India's rail sector. Both sides agreed to work on a road show of potential long-term investors having interest in India's infrastructure sector.
Prabhu also met the President and CEO of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Elizabeth L Littlefield to explore the possibility of OPIC's financing for the Indian Railways.
During a meeting, Prabhu informed US-India Business Council that the Indian Railways has prepared a draft regulatory framework for transparency in fare and freight pricing, supporting public private partnerships and ensuring efficiency parameters in India's railway sector.
During the interactions, he highlighted Railway's plans to invest USD 142 billion in the coming five years and hope to double this investment figure in the next five-year cycle.
Prabhu also highlighted that Indian Railways has permitted 100 per cent private sector investment in most segments of the railway infrastructure such as suburban rail, metro rail, locomotives and rolling stock, manufacturing and maintenance, signalling and electric works and dedicated freight lines.
Prabhu touched upon various projects which are at different stages of implementation including dedicated freight corridor, high speed train project, doubling/tripling train tracks in heavy traffic zones, modernization of 400 railway stations, technological up-gradation of signal system, instrumentation and other safety measures.
He stressed that Indian Railways followed a completely transparent process in awarding the USD 7 billion contracts to GE and Alstom.
