FDI In Railways

 FDI In Railways

As per data compiled by Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), the quantum of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Railway related components during the last six months (from September, 2015 to February, 2016) is US $ 59.81 million.


Agreements have been signed between Ministry of Railways and Joint Venture Company for setting up of two locomotive factories at Madhepura (Electric) and Marhowra (Diesel) costing about ₹ 2600 crore entailing FDI inflow in Rolling stock manufacturing.

While precise amount of FDI further expected can not be predicted or quantified, potential projects involving FDI include: Dankuni and Kancharapara rolling stock factories and BOT- annuity projects of 3rd line between Wardha-Nagpur, Kazipet-Vijaywada and Bhadrak-Nargundi.

Ministry of Railways have notified Sectoral guidelines on FDI and nominated PPP cell of the Ministry as the FDI facilitation cell.

This Press Release is based on information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 11.05.2016 (Wednesday).

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 Check On Prices of Meals In Trains

A Committee, headed by Chief Commercial Manager/Central Railway, Shri R.D. Sharma, was set up to consider the recommendations of Dr. Sreedharan Committee’s Report to handover catering to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and to examine the entire gamut of issues related to Catering services. The steps recommended by the Committee to check overcharging inter-alia include (i) Sale of a-la-carte items on trains shall be done through e-catering only to mitigate the passenger complaints on overcharging and ensure availability of standard meals during travel. (ii) Zonal Railways and IRCTC should promote sale of Ready to Eat (RTE) items on Maximum Retail Price to provide choice to passengers. (iii) The standard meals shall be priced in multiples of ₹ 10/- to check overcharging. Zonal Railway shall be empowered to include variety of items including regional cuisine in the standard meals, within the set price limit. (iv) Proliferation of e-catering where passengers get a wider choice at pre-fixed competitive prices. (v) Rationalizing the prices of catering items to prevent overcharging and revision of catering rates in line with inflation (vi) Adequate supervision powers to Zonal Railways over IRCTC.

Improvement in catering services as suggested by the Committee is an ongoing process. However, recommendation relating to proliferation of e-catering services has been announced in Rail Budget 2016-17 and phased introduction of station based e-catering at all A1 and A category stations has been started for widening the range of food options available to passengers.

This Press Release is based on information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 11.05.2016 (Wednesday).

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 Security Measures For Online Booking of Train Tickets

In order to facilitate hassle free booking by genuine ticket seekers, time check has been implemented for filling of CAPTCHA, Passengers details and carrying out payment. These checks negate the benefit of automated software for form filling. In order to ensure security of the e-ticketing website www.irctc.co.in, audit of the e-ticketing system is got conducted by Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, which is an attached office of the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India.