Railways to introduce Rs. 90,000 crore projects to ease freight movement

The Ministry of Railways will roll out projects worth Rs. 90,000 crore in the months ahead to remove bottlenecks in the movement of freight, said Union minister for railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw at the 17th Foundation Day of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCC). “Till now, we have identified projects worth Rs. 90,000 crore, or $10 billion, to remove all potential bottlenecks in the movement of freight. Some of these are small projects, some are bigger in scale. The projects will be sanctioned in the coming months, and will help us realise the aspiration of loading 3,000 million tonnes (mt) of goods,” Vaishnaw said. At the start of the financial year, the ministry had rolled out a Rs 1.5-trillion procurement plan to augment railway performance. “The prime minister sincerely believes that the only way to transform the Indian economy is to transform Indian Railways. This shows that the support for railways is foremost in the minds of the top leadership of this country,” the railways minister said.