Ministry of Railways Signed JV Agreement with Government of Odisha

Ministry of Railways signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Government of Odisha for improving Railway Infrastructure in the State

Chief Guest: A K Mittal, Member Engineering, Railway Board

Delegates: 

• P Dudeja, ED/Works on behalf of Ministry of Railways
• Sanjay Rastogi, Principal Secretary/ Transport, Govt. of Odisha

Role of Joint Venture Company:

• Identification of Projects needs to be developed
• Find places for financing
• Ministry of Railways and Govt. Of Odisha shall be funding such identified projects
• Special purpose vehicles shall be formed

Background:

• Formation of Joint Ventures with States for Project Development and implementation, Resource mobilisation and monitoring of critical rail projects to build up railway lines in various states
• Karnataka is already having a Joint Venture by the name K-RIDE with Ministry of Railways.
• 17 State Governments accorded for formation of Joint ventures Companies to develop rail infrastructure in their states.
• Draft Memorandum of Understanding were sent to these states
• Seven States such as Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telegana, Kerala and Haryana have already signed the MoU’s with Ministry of Railway
• Two States Jharkhand and Gujarat are interested to sign the MoU
• Eight States Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh shown interested for formation of Joint Venture companies.

Features of Memorandum of Understanding:

• Percentage of Stake
• State Government – 51%
• Ministry of Railways – 49%
• Fully owned by the Government
• Ownership of the land shall vest with the SPVs
• National integration by connecting the Rural and bringing people closer to each other