The Indian Railways has collaborated with the World Bank to help it transform completely in terms of digitisation, technology development and investment and planning. The Bank will help in the integration of architecture and database management for Railways. The World Bank will also help in establishing a Railway University and the Rail Tariff Authority.
Indian Railways, 164-year-old railroad network which is the world’s fourth longest will overhaul its entire operations in the next two-to-three years. “We needed this arrangement to build our capacity and deliver projects on a mission mode. World Bank’s expertise would be a great gain,” a rail ministry official said.
The Railways has decided to invest Rs 5 lakh crore in the next four years.This year, it is spending Rs 1.31 lakh crore to augment capacity. The World Bank has also proposed to set up an organisation for creating detailed forecasting models, traffic optimisation and planning.
“Further, an infrastructure plan for the next 10-15 years, after a detailed analysis on freight and passenger growth expected in India, is also envisaged to be created. The bank would be drawing that up as well,” the official said.