Railway fail to attract private investment

Reports suggest that the Indian Railways failed to attract private investment through public private partnership (PPP) models for implementing key projects. Data from official sources reveal that the railways could attract only Rs 8,000 crore from private investors during the 11th five-year plan against a target of Rs 50,000 crore. During the 12th plan period (2012-17), the railways expects to meet 20 percent of its Rs 4.56-lakh-crore investment target through PPP model. However, some experts feel that it may find very difficult to attract private investment as because of poor investor interest, patchy project design and lack of coordination among various wings of the government. Despite a direction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December to set timelines for these projects, there is little clarity on them. The UPA government announced plans to renovate 100 major railway stations with around Rs 10,000 crore of private funds in 2007. A core committee was formed to monitor the project. With railway ministers in the past five years revising the list of stations for renovation, the project remains on paper.