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We are engaging China in railway sector: Lalu

SINGAPORE: India is engaging China in the railways sector, and Japan has reaffirmed its commitment to “contribute” to the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai western corridor of the planned national network of dedicated freight lines.

Outlining the much-hailed turnaround of the Indian Railways, traced to indigenous efforts in recent years, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said here on Monday that the ongoing track electrification project might also benefit from the U.S.-India nuclear energy deal, work in respect of which “is on.”

Mr. Prasad made these and other comments in an address on the Singapore campus of the INSEAD business school and in remarks to this correspondent later.

While “no major project” had so far been agreed upon between India and China, Mr. Prasad said the bilateral engagement was under way. “We need to learn from China” in the railways sector, he noted.

The Indian Railways was watching with interest the recent political change at the helm in Japan, because its participation in India’s western freight corridor project was decided upon earlier. And, the Japanese authorities had now reassured Mr. Prasad of their willingness to stay the course in this sector.

Asked about the implications, if any, of the nuclear deal on the Indian Railways, Mr. Prasad said: “Electrification is going on; and work is on for the civil nuclear deal.” The Minister is involved in India’s ongoing political moves regarding the deal.

Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty in the Minister’s Office, said “there is no linkage” as such between the track electrification project and this accord with the U.S.

Mr. Prasad said he would make a formal proposal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Indian Railways enter into “joint ventures” with the private sector for transporting water suitably across the country through pipelines that could be laid alongside the tracks. This would help address water scarcity in many places and inter-State water disputes. The pipeline project was “feasible” and could be executed “without creating an upheaval.”

The Railways had proposed cold storage facilities and retail outlets at stations for farm produce, besides the running of refrigerated container trains, all under public-private partnership.

Mr. Prasad will on Wednesday leave for Malaysia, where he is to witness the signing of a $1.08-billion contract, recently awarded to IRCON for the construction of a 100-km state-of-the-art track network.

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