Rs 30K-crore income eyed off 300 upcoming cargo terminals

Raring to develop its cargo dealing with ecosystem using on the newly liberalised land-lease coverage, the Railways has already recognized 250 hectares (ha) of its land in 62 areas throughout the nation the place the 300 new Gati Shakti cargo terminals could come up in subsequent 5 years.

With every cargo terminal enabling a further income of Rs 100 crore — as per inner calculations by officers — the nationwide transporter is eyeing a income of round Rs 30,000 crore in about 5 years’ time, enabled by the net of cargo terminals.

Over 90 corporations are able to arrange cargo terminals and round 65 extra have expressed curiosity, mentioned Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The Railways has 62,000 ha of free land however lots of it are slender strips operating parallel to tracks. Explaining the coverage intimately, Vaishnaw mentioned it was wanted with the last word purpose to deliver down logistics value in India.

“Hypothetically speaking, if all goods were transported by road, the logistics cost would be around 17-18 per cent of the GDP. Similarly, if all goods went by rail, that figure would come down to around 6-7 per cent. That’s the difference. For the first time after decades, Railways’ modal share in freight increased since last year. We need to encourage this shift to bring down logistics cost in the economy. The cargo terminals are important in that context,” he advised reporters on Thursday, a day after the Union Cabinet authorised long-term leasing of railway land at economical charges.

The minister mentioned that the brand new coverage has nothing to do with the proposed disinvestment of CONCOR, the market chief by an enormous margin, in rail cargo dealing with enterprise.

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Vaishnaw mentioned that together with cargo terminals, his ministry was additionally within the means of firming up plans to arrange hospitals on railway land. As reported by The Indian Express on Wednesday, the coverage allows establishing of hospitals at nominal fee of Re 1 per sq. meter for 60 years in public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

“Many good hospitals have shown interest in this. The idea is that wherever there is vacant land adjacent to stations, we could think of setting up good hospitals there for the benefit of the local population,” he mentioned.

The coverage additionally stipulates that beneath distinctive, unavoidable circumstances, the Railways can take again the leased land for its personal use, like fo multi-tracking and different operational wants. In such circumstances, it might give enough discover in addition to a compensation primarily based on the funding of the lessee.