The government is believed to have taken a serious note of Railway ministry’s failure to achieve the asset monetisation target for FY22. The reluctance to allow private sector to operate trains or modernise stations through the public-private route could cost the railways dearly.
For the second straight year, Railways is set to fall way short of the asset monetisation target due to the reluctance of the state-run transporter to move on the path cleared by PM Narendra Modi. This has prompted the Centre to consider linking the release of the annual allocation to the fund generation through asset monetisation.
Against the target of over Rs 57,000 crore, railways may only raise Rs 30,000 crore due to its reluctance to let the private sector run trains or modernise stations through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. Even last year, the first year of the implementation of the Rs 6-lakh-crore National Asset Monetisation Pipeline, railways managed to rake in Rs 800 crore against a target of Rs 17,810 crore – 4.5% of the annual goal.
The Cabinet sectretary had recently held a meeting of key ministries to assess the progress of the asset monetisation programme. In the meeting, the railways mentioned that private players wanted more freedom on pricing in respect of stations and trains. The ministry of railways had achieved monetisation worth Rs 800 crore against a target of Rs 17,000 crore in the last financial year.
The Times of India reported that the railways might miss the target again as its is likely to raise only Rs 30,000 crore against a target of over Rs 57,000 crore.
For the entire period (till FY 2025), Railways has a monetisation target of Rs 1.52 lakh crore, which includes monetisation of 400 stations and privatisation of 90 trains and 15 Railway stadia. After years of discussions, there has been little progress on the railway station development front, which was expected to generate Rs 17,000 crore last year and another Rs 29,000 crore during the current financial year. Railway officers believe that it is better to take up only a few large projects through the PPP mode and do the smaller station development by awarding contracts
The government has set a target of asset monetisation of Rs 6 lakh crore from FY22 up to FY25. The PMO is monitoring the pace of the asset monetisation programme closely.
