Goyal, industry discuss ways to quicken project implementation

New Delhi: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has met representatives of construction and consultancy majors and discussed with them ways to expedite the implementation of projects including high-speed and dedicated freight corridors.

Goyal met representatives from KEC International, Siemens, Larsen and Toubro, Systra MVA Consulting India Pvt Ltd, Tata Projects Ltd and Afcons Infrastructure in Delhi. The meeting yesterday was also attended by senior officials of the Railway Board, a ministry statement said.

Chairing the meet, Goyal discussed with them the issues related to construction timelines for India’s first high- altitude rail projects, including Rishikesh-Karanprayag, Char Dham rail connectivity, Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Manali-Leh, it said. The representatives from the construction majors raised several issues, which, they said, were creating roadblocks.

The issues raised covered concerns on contract management, improving cash flows, execution of projects, expediting the inspection of various items to be procured from RDSO – Railways’ research and design arm – approved vendors, delay in land acquisition and problems in obtaining licenses of minor minerals.

They suggested ways to reduce time and cost overrun, expediting the payments of the contractors, risk sharing between the employer and the contractor, increased requirement of training of technical manpower.

Also discussed during the meeting were issues relating to availability of traffic and power blocks, proper estimation of quantities at the time of inviting tenders, officials said. Goyal, they said, has assured the representatives that necessary changes in the system and procedures would be done to improve the pace of project execution.