'Railways to get Rs 1 lakh cr investment via PPP in 12th Plan'

KOLKATA: Indian Railways is expected to get investment worth Rs 1 lakh crore through public-private partnership (PPP) route in the 12th Plan period, a Planning Commission official said today.

"During the 11th Plan period, the Railways received a mere Rs 3,000 crore investment through the public-private partnership route. We expect PPP investments in the current plan (2012-17) period of Rs 1 lakh crore," Manoj Singh, Adviser-Transport, Planning Commission, told reporters at a CII seminar on logistics here.

The government has chalked out six unique models to relax the norms in a bid to attract more Public Private Partnership investments.

Singh said that "underfunding" was a major challenge in expanding rail connectivity.

"If we want to match our logistic infrastructure with the global standards, PPP is the only model," he said.