Title - Railways' plan to lease out land hangs fire

PATNA: An ambitious project of the railways to lease out its vacant land to private firms to build agri-retail infrastructure across the country has been hanging fire. Bihar, an important centre of agricultural production, has been in the ambit of proposed agri-retail infrastructure development plan of the railways. However, delay in executing the project has disappointed businessmen and traders in Bihar.According to a Railway Board official, railways has already worked out details to lease out about 4,300 hectares to retailers and logistics companies for building agri-retail infrastructure. This decision was taken to give a boost to agricultural production in the country as well as to augment railways' revenue, he said.The official said under the plan, the vacant railway land would be given to interested firms on lease for a period of up to 10 to 15 years. Railways may renew the lease depending on performance and revenue earning viability for railways, he said, adding railways has about 4.23 lakh hectare of surplus land across the country.According to sources, railways had held discussions with reputed firms of the country interested in this plan. These firms had shown their inclination to invest in vacant railway land and set up agri-retail outlets to cater to the needs of farmers, sources said, adding railways is yet to execute this plan, particularly in Bihar.

Sources said the railways, which carried out a random survey at the country level recently, has shortlisted about 3,000 locations across the country for developing agri-retail outlets. Each zone of railways will be asked again to explore the feasibility of building such outlets for promoting agricultural production in the country. Poor farmers will be the real beneficiaries of this project, sources said.

Besides, railways' project to introduce a refrigerated rail link, particularly from the agriculture hub of the country, to transport perishable agri products has also been lying in limbo for want of requisite initiative. Farmers would get an opportunity to market their produce all over the country at good prices if this plan is successfully executed, sources said.

India produces about 13% of the world's vegetables and 10% of fruits. Unfortunately, about 25% of the produce gets wasted for want of proper storage. Earlier, railways had introduced refrigerated van service on the Patna-Delhi route to transport perishable products. But it was discontinued as there were virtually no takers for agricultural produce from here, sources said.

Meanwhile, a Board official said railways would have to explore the possibility of increasing revenue from other sources, otherwise it would be difficult to survive merely on goods and passenger traffic services.