Union Cabinet approves policy on long-term leasing of Railways’ land

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a policy for long-term leasing of railway land for the PM Gati Shakti programme, which the government said will help set up 300 cargo terminals and generate 125,000 jobs.

The new policy will help provide land lease for a longer period of up to 35 years as against five years at present, Union Minister Anurag Thakur told the media after the cabinet meeting.

With an employment generation potential of about 125,000 jobs, the policy will also bring more revenue to the Railways, 300 cargo terminals will be developed in five years, said Thakur.

The new policy will enable the integrated development of infrastructure and more cargo terminals.

Thakur said that apart from leasing the land for setting up cargo terminals, these land parcels would also be used for setting up social infrastructures like hospitals and schools through public-private partnership mode.

In addition to this, solar plants would also be set up on railway land, the minister added.

Thakur informed that land would be leased for new stakeholders for up to 35 years at 1.5 per cent of market value of the land.

The policy on long-term leasing of Railways’ Land to implement the PM Gati Shakti framework will be implemented in the next 90 days: Union Minister Anurag Thakur

— ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2022

Existing stakeholders can participate in this scheme through a transparent bidding system, he added.

The scheme will ensure about 1.2 lakh jobs and will also bring more revenue to Indian Railways, official sources said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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