Finding Money For CapEx: Railways Is Lining Up Power Transmission Lines And Land Parcels For Sale

In an effort to raise funds for its capacity expansion plans for the next financial year, the Railways is planning to monetise assets such as power transmission lines and land, the Economic Times has reported.

According to the daily, the Railways has selected 30,000 km of its power transmission lines for monetisation and is reportedly in talks with two public sector units to invest in the project. The railways will sell power lines and lease them back by paying a fixed fee. It has also identified three land parcels in prime localities of Delhi and Mumbai for monetisation, although the size of the land has not bee ascertained.

While the Railways expects to raise around Rs 30,000 crore from the monetisation of power transmission lines, the sale of land may fetch the national transporter around Rs 2,000 crore.

This fund will form a significant part of the 1.4-1.5 lakh crore expansion plan that the Railways is finalising for the next financial year. Rs 55,000 crore will come in from of gross budgetary support from the finance ministry. This will also be significantly more than Rs 1.31 lakh crore it expects to spend in the current year and will be the largest ever outlay for the Railways.