Centre to develop roadmap for six railway PSUs in budget 2022

The centre plans to implement a roadmap for merging six public sector undertakings (PSUs) under the Ministry of Railways in the budget 2022-23.

Sanjeev Sanyal, the principal economic adviser, recommended the mergers in August 2021 on the rationalisation of the government bodies under the Ministry of Railways.

Sources informed the media that Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to announce the merger of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) with Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON), RailTel Corporation with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Braithwaite and Co Limited with Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES).

According to an official, out of three railway PSU mergers, two are likely to complete in 2022, depending on the regulatory approvals.

The merger between RVNL and IRCON and RailTel and IRCTC might be completed by 2022-23. The Ministry of Railways expects that the PSU merger will boost the value of the PSUs for raising funds on better terms.

RVNL will be implementing the projects for creating and augmenting rail infrastructure, while IRCON is a specialised infrastructure construction organisation.

The merger of PSUs was started in September when the Ministry of Finance asked the Indian Railways to come up with a merger plan of seven PSUs proposed by Sanyal.

It also asked the railways to figure out a plan to downsize operations within the railway department to help organisations focus on running and maintaining railway services.

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