Mumbai, Oct 29 (PTI) The Railways is looking to investover USD 150 billion over the next five years which would helpcreate one million additional jobs, minister Piyush Goyal hassaid.
Goyal, who took over as the rail minister after a Cabinetreshuffle in August, said he was trying to give the nationaltransporter a "new direction".
"During the next five years, the Railways alone will belooking at an investment of upwards of USD 150 billion. Andwhen I translate that into jobs, I see a million jobs beingcreated only through investments in the railway sector," hesaid.
The Railways can play an important role in "aggressivelypursuing" government agenda to provide safe, secure,comfortable travel, he said addressing an awards functionorganised by the business daily Economic Times here late lastnight.
A focus on infrastructure could also help increase localmanufacturing, he said.
Goyal said his ministry was also compressing the timetaken for complete electrification of rail lines to four yearsfrom the earlier plan of 10 years, which would help cut costsby around 30 per cent for the loss-making Railways.
This electrification initiative would help save thenational transporter around Rs 10,000 crore per annum on fuelbill, he said.
Earlier this month, Goyal had said the Railways wouldcreate one million jobs within the next 12 months.
In 2015, his predecessor Suresh Prabhu had said theRailways needed investments of Rs 8.5 trillion over the nextfive years, and invited overseas investors for the same.
Prabhu had also secured a debt funding worth Rs 1.5trillion from Life Insurance Corporation to fund variousprojects.
It is not clear whether Goyal's USD 150 billion is partof Prabhu's Rs 8.5 trillion investments. PTI AA BEN GKAAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.