RAIL VIKAS NIGAM
The Government has
provided Rs. 750 crores to the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd., a newly
formed special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Railways,
during the current financial year 2003-2004 to help it execute
National Rail Vikas Yojana.
The special purpose
vehicle is intended to remove capacity bottlenecks in the critical
sections of the railway network at an investment of Rs. 15,000
crores non-budgetary initiative over the next five years. These
projects incloude strengthening of the Golden Quadrilateral and
its diagonals to enable the Railways to run more long-distance
mail, express and freight trains at a higher speed of 100 kilometre
per hour at a cost of Rs. 8,000 crores, strengthening of rail
connectivity to ports and development of multimodal corridors
to hinterland at a cost of Rs. 3,000 crores and construction of
four mega bridges—two over the river Ganga, one over the river
Brahmaputra and one over the river Kosi at a cost of Rs. 3,500
crores.
Of the Rs. 730
corres, Rs. 95 crores will be incurred on new lines, Rs. 130 crores
on gauge conversion, Rs. 420 crores on doubling and Rs. 85 crores
on railway electrification.
The Rail Vikas
Nigam will commence mobilizing resources by way of equity and
debt. A part loan of US dollar 313.6 million has already been
approved by the Asian Development Bank to the Nigam. The most
important fact of the Nigam is that the debt servicing arising
out of resources so mobilized will be met with the incremental
revenue generated by the projects under the National Rail Vikas
Yojana.
