Railways has pivotal role in trade
Indian Railways is a key sector for development and is cherished as an attractive destination for foreigners, said Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Addressing the 7th PHD Global Rail Convention 2020, he also stressed upon the economic cooperation of the transport sector showing an upright graph at the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
JICA is one of the leading lenders to India.
Minister of State for Steel, Faggan Singh Kulaste, also highlighted on the pivotal role played by Indian Railways in enhancing the trade and economic growth of the country.
Speaking at the convention, Kulaste stated that the Indian Railways today is the second largest transportation network in the world and the sector is still progressing towards further growth and development.
ISPAT (steel) is one of the most important raw material for sectors like Infrastructure Automobile, Shipping, Roadways and Railways among other. With the increasing transformation of Indian Railways, the growth, development and improved quality of production of ISPAT is of integral importance fulfill the growing needs of railways, said Kulaste.
He urged PHD Chamber to organize more of such conferences and to provide valuable suggestions, from its member industry stakeholders, to the Ministry for the enhancing the growth and development of the Steel sector.
Dr D K Aggarwal, President PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry appreciated the Indian Railways for undertaking developmental initiatives and aiming to provide world-class train journey experience to passengers by embracing technology and modernization advancements.
“We appreciate the government’s recent initiative of 100% electrification of the entire Indian Railways, which is about 125,000 km of track length and nearly 68,000 km of route length, by 2024 become a net-zero emission network by 2030,” said Dr D K Aggarwal.
Mr Vinod Kumar Yadav, (IRSEE), Chairman, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways, reiterated that modernization gives an integrated approach for enhancing capacity of India railway ecosystem through multi tracking railway connectivity across the country.
Indian Railways has capacity constraints, not demand constraints, Yadav added.
He further highlighted the reworking of restructuring the Indian railway on freight loading, safety mechanism, digital transformation, upgradation of railway networks, stations and Infrastructure redevelopment of rail ecosystem.
Indian Railways has ramped up to electrical locomotives from diesel locomotives, he pointed out.
Stressing upon the roadmap for development of railway ecosystem, Yadav stated that in order to achieve the target, prioritizing projects is the major key element to be fulfilled by year 2022-23. fiinews.com
