Railways set to roll out two major reform initiatives

The Railways Ministry is set to roll out two major initiatives –setting up of a regulatory authority for fixing fares and creating an infrastructure development fund – that will have far-reaching effect on the national transporter, officials said.

The latest initiatives, which has already undertaken a series of changes in its policy and structure, come at a time when PM Narendra Modi has been laying emphasis on reforms.

While the formation of a railway regulatory authority is likely to be announced through an executive order soon, the World Bank has agreed to anchor the Railway Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of $5 billion over a period of seven years, a senior Railway Ministry official said.

The fund will be co-anchored by pension and sovereign wealth funds.  

The official said these two initiatives are part of major reforms being undertaken by the railways that will transform the national transporter in a big way.