Mamata on overdrive to woo investors

NEW DELHI: Attempting an image makeover after opposing most major projects in her home state of West Bengal, railway minister Mamata Banerjee seemed to be going over the top in a bid to privatise every sector of Indian Railways at her pre-budget meeting with industry representatives on Saturday.

Mamata’s eagerness to privatise the railways, whether in extending railway tracks by 49,000 km to railway safety, infrastructure development to technology, came as a surprise, since she has so far talking of the PPP (private-public-partnership) model as the best mode of turning the railways into the government’s biggest revenue-generating unit.

In fact, FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra, who heads the experts committee for the railways and who moderated the interactive session with the industry representatives, saw the railways saying that without private funding it would not be able to meet its target of extending the track laying network.

Saturday’s meet was open-to-all meet. Banerjee took suggestions from the industry representatives, in the presence of the media. Railway association heads were also present on the dais. Didi’s performance was obviously crafted to send across the message that she means to deliver, resolve every issue over the table in minutes, and in the most transparent manner.

If Texmaco chairman Ramesh Maheshwari said that he was ready to provide at least 10,000 railway wagons in a year and had the capacity to do so but was not getting orders, Mamata took the question straight on and got the related member of Railway Board to reply to him.