The Indian Railways plans to hire 76,000 in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.

The Railways has decided to finalise a policy within a month for setting up of solar panel on all buildings and railway stations through public-private partnership. It will also set up short duration committee on resources mobilisation. All these were announced in a press conference to mark 100 days of the Government.

Employment

The Rail Ministry said that a total of 16,299 candidates out of the targeted 76,000 have been empanelled for recruitment in Indian Railways during the last three months (June-August).

Over 300 ex-servicemen have also been empanelled during the year. Since Railways employs around 55,000 people in Group B service and 19 to 20,000 in Group C every year, all those empanelled are likely to be absorbed in this year itself.

The Railways currently employs 13.1 lakh people.

Energy Conservation

After proposing installation of solar panels on the rooftops of all railway buildings and stations across the nation, the Railway Minister D Sadanand Gowda said a comprehensive policy for implementation is being prepared and the same would be finalised within a month. “The work of installing the solar panel is likely to start by the end of the year,” he said while adding that work on installing solar panels on the Katra Railway Station (Jammu & Kashmir) has begun and will be completed by December.

Resource augmentation

Gowda said that his ministry is working hard to see whatever announced in the Rail Budget is implemented and more resources are mobilised. “We will be setting up a short duration committee on resource mobilisation which would basically give immediately implementable recommendations so that we are in a position to mobilise the funds for various projects,” he announced.

The Railways has proposed Plan outlay of Rs 65,445 crore for the current fiscal. This will be include gross budgetary support of Rs 30,100 crore, railway safety fund of Rs 2,200 crore and internal resources of Rs 15,350 crore. While market borrowing is estimated at Rs 11,790 crore and Rs 6,005 crore is expected to be mobilised through PPP.

One of the key means to mobilise resources would be foreign direct investment. The Minister said that the FDI will come in handy for the big ticket projects such as high speed rail as well as for the remaining portion of the Dedicated Freight Corridor apart from capacity augmentation projects like doubling and introduction of Automatic Signalling System. The Chairman of the Railway Board Arunendra Kumar said that though no target has been fixed the Ministry is getting many enquiries and interest from various parties.

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