Indian Railways could take the external commercial borrowing (ECB) route to raise Rs 2,51,000 crore during the 11th Plan (2007-2012) after it receives the Planning Commission’s approval.
It will use the amount for the Rs 28,000-crore dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project, rail gauge conversion and revamp of railway infrastructure.
VN Mathur, member (traffic), railway board, said: “We have submitted the draft to the Planning Commission for the Rs 2,51,000-crore investment road map.”
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on logistics organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries.
He said that while Rs 90,000 crore will come from internal generation, market borrowing will be around Rs 75,000 crore. It has asked the Centre to help it with the remaining.
Railways has already held a series of talks with Japanese agencies to part- finance the projects. Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) is carrying out a feasibility study for the DFC project. The report is likely to be submitted by October this year.
Arbind Kumar, group general manager of RITES Ltd, said the dedicated freight corridor is expected to generate an annual business of $90 bn.
According to sources, freight traffic in the western corridor will increase by 4 crore tonne by 2021-22, while the increase for the eastern corridor will be 14.43 crore tonne from 5.26 crore tonne in 2005-06.
Earlier, a new public sector undertaking, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India Ltd (DFCCIL), was formed to implement the dedicated freight corridor project. The company has been entrusted with the construction of eastern and western corridors.