Railways to clear tracks for development

NEW DELHI: The country’s biggest land owner, the Indian Railways, will soon be able to freely use vast tracks of its unutilised land to build malls, agri business hubs, a dedicated 2,700 km freight corridor and a bullet train project each in four corners of the country.

The government plans to amend the Railways Act, 1989, empowering the railway ministry to utilise excess land without hindrance, in the same manner the National Highway Authority of India acquires land for highway projects. The Railways are currently unable to tap nearly 43,000 hectares of land alongits tracks for commercial purposes dueto legal interference by the state governments.

The move will pave way for the construction of the Rs 30,000-crore freight corridor which despite having been cleared by the Union cabinet is held up due to objections raised by respective state governments. The amendment, which have been proposed in a cabinet note, would take away the powers of the states, a source in Rail Bhawan said.

The amendment among others would help the Railways to evict illegal occupants of its land. In Delhi alone, about 40 hectares of land is being illegally occupied for more than three decades. Despite repeated efforts by the Railways, the state authorities have not been able to remove them.

The Railways have circulated the note to seek the comments of other ministries after which it will put up the amendment for Cabinet’s approval.The Railways are pushing for the amendments as delays in implementation of the freight corridor and the agri-hubs would not only result in huge losses for the government but also delay the creation of much needed infrastructure to sustain a booming economy. The cabinet has already cleared a East corridor linking Kolkata with Ludhiana and a west corridor connecting Mumbai with New Delhi. The corridors pass through around a dozen states and was slated to be completed in five years. Companies such as GE, Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier are hoping to cash in on the freight corridor to expand their business.

In addition, the Railways are planning to utilise part of the land to build commercial projects like agri business hubs and organised retail. It has been in talks with companies like Reliance Retail, Future group (Pantaloon), Tatas and AV Birla group for setting up agri business hubs on its land. It would also require land from states to construct four high-speed bullet train corridors in all four corners of the country.