Mamta Banerjee to interact with Ficci, Assocham, CII representatives

KOLKATA: Union railways minister Mamata Banerjee is slated to interact with leading captains of India Inc, representing three of the country's apex chambers of commerce in an interactive session in the city on Friday.

The meeting, which has been organised by the Railways, is being billed as the first-ever meeting of minds between national representatives of the top three business chambers ���namely Ficci, Assocham and CII ��� with local industry bodies also likely to participate in strength.

Incidentally, it comes less than a year after Ms Banerjee led a campaign against forcible acquisition of farmland for industry which led to the Tata group withdrawing its small car project 'Nano' from Singur.

In the meeting the minister is scheduled to present her vision of the Railways, an exercise that is likely to involve a fleshing out of the proposals she had presented as part of the Rail Budget on July 3, 2009.

Ms Banerjee had suggested a spate of new projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs) to improve Railway infrastructure and services. This includes projects to manufacture suburban EMU coaches, high capacity freight bogies and multi-functional complexes where Railways look at leasing out land for a proposed new factory.

The minister has already set up an expert committee headed by Ficci's secretary general, Mr Amit Mitra to prepare a business plan on innovative new ways to foster PPP in the Railways.

"The Railways have invited all the three apex national chambers for a meeting," Mr Mitra told ET on the sidelines of an event organized to mark the 54th Railway Week celebrations.

A top source close to the developments told ET: "The minister would spell out the template of growth she had outlined during the Rail Budget to leading business leaders and industry heads and, in turn, take their questions on the subject and interact with them. The objective is to bring about a synergy so that Industry can take part in Railways growth plans and modernization effectively."

"It is being organized essentially in a bid to engage with industry, create a platform for ideation and invite new ideas in making some of the proposals work," the source added.

Earlier, speaking at the function, Ms Banerjee told assembled Railway employees : We have a land bank of 1.12 lakh acres. We are in the process of preparing a business plan to utilize it and have set up an expert committee under Amit Mitra who will suggest ways for us to earn more money through commercial utilization of our land and air space.

The meeting was attended by Railway Board members and general managers of all zonal Railways and other organizations under the railway ministry.