Goyal gets list of project implementation concerns
The Indian constractors and consultants have expressed strong concerns about railway projects during a meeting with Minister Piyush Goyal, according to a 18 Jan 2018 press note.
Top management of 400 construction and consultation companies attended the “Mega Conclave Of Ministry Of Railways”.
The pointed out:
Concerns on contract management, improving cash flows, execution of projects, expediting the inspection of various items to be procured from Research, Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) approved vendors, adoption of FIDIC documents by Railways, delay in acquisition of land, problems in obtaining licenses of minor minerals, suggestions for reducing the time and cost over-run, expediting the payments of the contractors, risk sharing between the employer and the contractor, increased requirement of training of technical manpower, availability of traffic and power blocks, proper estimation of quantities at the time of inviting tenders.
Responding, Railway Minister Goyal has assured of follow up and necessary changes in the systems to implement the Ministry’s ambitious investment programme.
The Ministry’s main focus is on developing Rail infrastructure to meet the ever increasing transport needs and a huge investment in the sector.
The pace of augmentation of railway network needs a quantum jump. The speed of execution of doubling/tripling and quadrupling which is about 800 kms per annum for the last 5 years, needs to be accelerated 2 to 3 times to meet the increasing demand.
Completion of electrification of the full rail network in the next 3 to 5 years. So far out of 63,000 rail km (RKM), 25,201 RKM have been commissioned on electric traction till 31st March 2017.
The average pace during last five years is about 1,300 RKMs per annum which needs to be increased by 6 to 8 times to electrify remaining 38,000 RKMs to meet the ambition of complete electrification.
Taking up of Hill Rail Projects, including Rishikesh-Karanprayag, Char Dham rail connectivity, Bhanupalli-Bilaspur and on to Leh.
Completion of ongoing and proposed Dedicated Freight Corridors.
Mumbai- Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor and other projects on Diamond Quadrilateral to link the major Metropolitan Cities.
Goyal held the conclave as a step to streamline procedures and remove bottlenecks to ensure the fast track implementation of projects on the railways. fii-news.com
