Mumbai: The Union cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to amending the railway land policy under the PM Gati Shakti programme.
As per the changes, the land lease fee will be cut down to 1.5 per cent from the current 6 per cent, and the permitted lease period will be increased to 35 years instead of the current rule of five years.
Officials said this will help facilitate integrated development of infrastructure, including 300 cargo terminals, and generate 1.25 lakh jobs, which will further bring ad additional revenue to the railways.
As per a statement released by the Centre, this will help attract more cargo to railways, increase railways’ modal share in freight transportation, thereby reducing logistics cost of the industry. Liberalising the land leasing policy would open avenues for all stakeholders / service providers / operators to establish more cargo-related facilities, officials said.
Additionally, the policy will also enable use of railway land at nominal cost for setting up of solar plants on railway land. The policy also encourages development of social infrastructure (such as hospitals through public-private partnership and schools through Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan) on railway land at a nominal annual fee of Re 1 per sq m per annum, the statement added.
Officials said the development is believed to be in line with NITI Aayog’s recommendation to keep railway land leasing fee below three per cent for containers.
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