In the next five years, 300 cargo terminals would be set up on railway land
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a policy for long-term leasing of railway land for the PM Gati Shakti programme, which the government said will help set up 300 cargo terminals and generate 1.25 lakh jobs.
“The new policy will help provide a land lease for a longer period of up to 35 years as against five years at present,” Union Minister Anurag Thakur told the media after the cabinet meeting.
“The programme will simplify approvals for utilities as envisaged in PM Gati Shakti Programme. This will help in the development of public utilities like electricity, gas, water supply, telecom cable, sewage disposal, drains, optical fibre cables (OFC), pipelines, roads, flyovers, but terminals, regional rail transport, urban transport etc. in an integrated manner,” he said.
The minister said the policy will have an employment generation potential of about 1.25 lakh jobs and bring more revenue to the Railways.
The new policy will enable the integrated development of infrastructure and 300 cargo terminals will be developed in five years.
The policy also simplifies Railways’ land use and Right of Way (ROW) for integrated development of public service utilities like electricity, gas, water supply, sewage disposal, urban transport etc by providing railway land at 1.5 per cent of the market value of land per annum, said a statement.
The policy provides for use of railway land at a nominal cost for setting up solar plants on railway land, said the statement.
The policy also encourages the development of social infrastructure (such as hospitals through PPP and schools through Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan) on railway land at a nominal annual fee of Rupee 1 per sqm. per annum, the statement added.
Source: PTI
