The Union Cabinet has approved policy on long term leasing of railway land for implementing PM Gati Shakti framework.
The plan will not incure any additional expenditure. However, liberalizing the land leasing policy will open avenues for all stakeholders/service providers/operators to establish more cargo related facilities.
Besides bringing more revenue to railways, the plan will attract more cargo to railways, increase railways' modal share in freight transportation thereby reducing logistics cost of the industry.
It will simplify approvals for utilities as envisaged in PM Gati Shakti Programme.
It will also help in development of public utilities like electricity, gas, water supply, telecom cable, sewage disposal, drains, optical fibre cables (OFC), pipelines, roads, flyovers, but terminals, regional rail transport, urban transport etc. in an integrated manner.
This policy amendment will enable employment generation potential of about 1.2 lakh employment.
Further, the cabinet also approved the implementation of the Kochi metro Rail Phase II of Kochi Metro Rail Project from JLN Stadium to Infopark via Kakkanad, at a cost of Rs 1,957.05 crore, with a length of 11.17 Kms and 11 stations. The preparatory works for Phase-II including road widening of Seaport Airport Road are progressing well. Phase-I in Kochi from Aluva to Petta, covering a length of 25.6 Km with 22 stations at an estimated completion cost of Rs 5181.79 crore is fully operational.