RAILWAY SAMACHAR

Lalu, Sonia to launch rail coach factory in Raebareli

New Delhi : Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party MP Rahul Gandhi will be in Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday to launch a Rs.20 billion ($408 million) rail coach factory. Work on the project was stalled October following political wrangling. Ministers of State for Railways R. Velu and Naranbhai Rathwa will also accompanythem, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told by phone from state capital Lucknow. The factory will be located in Lalganj in Raebareli, Congress president SoniaGandhi's Lok Sabha constituency. The work on the factory, to come up on about 1,000 acres, was stalled in Octoberwhen Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati refused to transfer 189.253 acres ofland under the state government ownership, citing opposition by local people. Her announcement had come dramatically ahead of Sonia Gandhi's visit to the site for the ground-breaking ceremony. The decision sparked off political controversy as Mayawati also tried to stop Sonia Gandhi, who is the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), from addressing a rally there. The Mayawati government's decision was challenged in the Allahabad High Courtbut later the state relented and decided to grant the land to the railways onlease. The lease deed for the 189.25 acres of land in Lalganj sub-district was executed Jan. 17 and the Indian Railways Wednesday filed its copy along with asupplementary affidavit in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. 'The land has now been registered in the name of Northern Railway barely acouple of days ago and now there is no hurdle in the construction of the factory,' V. Madan, a Congress leader, told by phone from Lucknow. Railways officials said the project is likely to be completed in two years. Building more rail coach factories was on top of the railways ministry's agenda this year, they said.

Ms Gandhi to lay foundation stone

of Raebareli coach factory

It is reported that the foundation stone of the Railway coach factory at RaeBareli in Uttar Pradesh will be laid by Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi onJanuary 27th 2009.The new INR 2,200 factory to be constructed under PPP mode will spread over 1000acre. Work on the project is likely to be completed by 2010.Work on the factory was stalled earlier, in October 2008, when the stategovernment which had ownership of 189. 253 acre refused to transfer the landciting opposition by locals. However, the lease deed for the land in Lalganjtehsil of Rae Bareli was executed on January 17th 2009 paving way for theproject to commence work.

Satyam fiasco may hit PPP model for metro rail

Hydrabad : In the light of the Hyderabad metro debacle, it would not be unrealistic to assume that future metro rail projects would be more inclined to go in for the EPC route, adopting the Delhi Metro Rail model. Apart from the Hyderabad metro, the only metro rail that is being implemented onthe PPP route is the Mumbai Metro Line 1, which incidentally is a much smaller project costing INR 2,350 crore. Metro rail projects at Bangalore and Chennai have embraced the DMRC model and the Kochi metro rail project, for which the PPP route was being contemplated, is now likely to be modeled on the EPC route. As per report, it would also be interesting to see what course the Mumbai metro Line 2 project takes. Although the state government has planned to use the PPP route, as in Line 1, there is no clarity yet on the issue. For Line 3, which is under ground, and would cost much more, the state government has nearly finalizedthe EPC route, according to sources in nodal agency Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Agency.In the DMRC model, which has sufficient track record, the Central and state governments come together with equity participation. The remaining funds areraised through borrowings, including international assistance. It may be mentioned that the Center's viability gap funding mechanism is also applicableto PPP metro rail project, just like any other PPP infrastructure project.According to information available, the Center has sanctioned a total of INR 4,544 crore for the Mumbai metro (Lines 1 and 2) and the Hyderabad metro rail project. It is also interesting to note that the Mumbai metro (Line 1) had bureaucratic difficulties in securing VGF as the project was conceived muchbefore the Center's VGF scheme was announced. Meanwhile, it is premature to predict what course the Hyderabad metro rail project would take, but a considerable setback in terms of commissioning schedule is inevitable. Although the present focus is on issues relating to the developer and not on the implementation route, it is clear that the Hyderabad metro rail project could become an important case study for not just future metro rail projects but also be an inspiration to fine-tune guidelines governing PPP projects in general.