Railways to monetise assets worth Rs 54,000 cr to raise funds, has identified projects, land
The Ministry of Railways has prepared an initial list of assets it can monetise with a potential value of Rs 54,344 crore as a way for alternate funding, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the government, in a meeting held with a Group of Secretaries (GoS) last week, the ministry said an initial ‘Asset Monetisation Pipeline’ list comprising private train operator projects, multifunctional complexes, railway colonies and select rail land parcels has been identified for this purpose.
The meeting, which was chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, was attended by Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Tarun Bajaj, among others.
Asset monetisation refers to the process of extracting the value of investment made in public assets, which have not yielded sufficient returns so far.
The asset monetisation list of the Railways is part of the government’s disinvestment agenda for which a core group of secretaries has shortlisted about 30 projects and assets for monetisation. This was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech.
In her speech, Sitharaman had said the Railways will go for monetising the Dedicated Freight Corridor assets as part of the government’s plans to recycle operating assets.
