The Railways Ministry is set to roll out two major initiatives — setting up of a regulatory authority for fixing fares and creating an infrastructure development fund. While the formation of a railway regulatory authority is likely to be announced through an executive order soon, the World Bank has agreed to anchor the Railway Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of USD 5 billion over a period of seven years, a senior Railway Ministry official said. The fund will be co-anchored by pension and sovereign wealth funds.
These two initiatives are part of major reforms being undertaken by the railways that will transform the national railway company.
The proposed regulatory authority will play a crucial role in deciding rail tariff while the Railway Infrastructure Development Fund will be used in remunerative projects which have scope of good returns in shorter period.
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