IRFC to raise about Rs 6,000 cr for Railways

Rs 5,500 crore —Rs 6,000 crore will be mobilised for Indian Railways in the remaining two weeks of the current fiscal from the domestic market by the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), the fund raising arm of the Indian Railways. Funds raised by IRFC are used to pay for buying locomotives, wagons and coaches for Indian Railways.

Rajiv Datt, Managing Director, IRFC, said that from the total fund mobilising target for the current fiscal of about Rs 15,000 crore, IRFC has to raise about Rs 5,500-6000 crore. IRFC will do that before the current fiscal ends and make available to Indian Railways, he added. IRFC raised about Rs 7,000 crore through its tax-free bond issues in the current fiscal, which is Rs 3,000 crore short of the Rs 10,000-crore permitted to IRFC through tax-free bonds for the fiscal.

This was because all organisations with permissions for tax-free bond issues hit the market after December 2012, in effect reducing the time window when firms could raise money. As a result, many firms have not been able to mobilise money from the market.