'Railways offer $2.7 trn investment opportunity'

Indian Railways sector offers an investment opportunity of a whopping Rs 2.7 lakh crore over the next five to eight years, a report says.

Indian Railways sector offers an investment opportunity of a whopping Rs 2.7 lakh crore over the next five to eight years, a report says.

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"Opportunities in the Railway sector are close to Rs 2.7 trillion over the next five to eight years, of which the Rs 800-900 billion will be awarded in the next two years," global financial services provider BNP Paribas said in a report.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has been appointed as the Railway Minister in the second term of UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.

In the last government Lalu Prasad was the Railway Minister and was credited for a major turnaround story at Indian Railways.

The BNP Paribas report further said that out of the entire outlay Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, which envisages construction of 2,800 kms of rail corridor spanning seven states poses the largest investment opportunity of Rs 68,000 crore.

The maximum length of the corridor would be in Uttar Pradesh of about 37 per cent and the total land required is 12,500 hectares.

Other areas of opportunities include station modernisation, port connectivity, gauge conversion, rolling stock and logistic parks.

The Railway budget for 2009-10 has earmarked Rs 37,900 crore as compared to Rs 36,773 crore for 2008-09 revised estimates.