Proposal for railway PSUs complex in offing

A majority of Railway PSUs operate from rented premises, which results in excessive expenditure, reports HS Bartwal.

The Railway Ministry is considering a proposal to build a central office complex in Delhi which can house all the PSUs under the Indian Railways which are currrently running from rented premises at different places.

The Railway Ministry has the largest number of PSUs under its charge. But despite the fact that many of these units have been functioning for as long as 30 years, a majority of them operate from rented premises which results in excessive expenditure, according to Railway Board's Executive Director Achla Sinha.

"It is high time that these PSUs moved into a centralised complex called Rail Habitat Tower," she said in an article published in the latest issue of Railway Ministry's official journal Indian Railways.

Some of the prominent PSUs under the Ministry are RITES, IRCON, IRFC, CONCOR, RAILTEL, IRCTC, Rail Vikas Nigam and Rail Development Authority and Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor Corporation of India.

The idea of housing all these organisations under the same roof is to provide for more effective coordination between them and the ministry and facilitate easy monitoring.

The proposal, however, is still in its conceptual stage and would need to be approved by the ministry before it is pursued further.

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