Railways, Rajasthan govt to form JV for infrastructure development: Prabhu

The ministry of railways proposes to form a joint venture with the Rajasthan government for developing rail infrastructure in the state, railway minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday.

The plan is to form a company jointly owned by the centre and state, which will develop the infrastructure and look into issues that the states deem to be important.

Besides, he said, it is proposed to develop 24 stations in the state as model railway stations.

"The railways and the government of Rajasthan will be entering into a joint venture for developing railway infrastructure in the state," he said at the 'Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit' in Jaipur.

He said the government is committed to provide all kind of support to the states for development of railways.

The railway ministry aims to develop 400 railway stations across the country and 25 in Rajasthan on public private partnership mode, Prabhu said and urged investors to come forward to invest in infrastructural facilities at the railway stations.

Prabhu said that the railways is aiming to develop infrastructural facilities on A1 and A class railway stations across the state and they need it to be done on PPP model. "In Rajasthan 25 such stations including Ajmer, Jaipur and Jodhpur would be developed along with the others," Prabhu said.

It may be recalled that union cabinet in July, 2015 had given a nod to this proposal in which it was decided that A-1 and A category stations (about 400) would be offered for redevelopment by inviting open bids from interested parties. These stations are to be developed by leveraging real estate development of land and air space in and around the stations.

These categories of stations are generally located in metros, pilgrimage centres and important tourist destinations across the country.

On the progress, an official with the railways, said, "Japan has agreed to modernise 400 railway stations across the country while participating in Indian railways $140 billion investment over the next five years. A Japanese delegation will soon visit India to study the opportunities for industries in the railway station development plan of railways as the public transporter."

"We are also open for several memorandums of understandings (MOUs) with the state government for the development of the railways in the state," Prabhu said.

"The centre has notified Jaipur-Bhiwadi-Neemrana-Udaipur-Ajmer-Kota as the Brownfield Electronic manufacturing Cluster (EMC) for ESDM initiatives," he informed.