The Railways is opening up to investment by foreign and domestic players. It has sanctioned projects valued at Rs 12,000 crore. Further, the amount can go up if the high-speed rail link project, costing around Rs 77,000 crore is sanctioned.

In addition, there are other projects such as the North-South freight corridor and passenger terminal development of several stations, which can get approved once the cost is finalised.

The Railways projects work has not started due to dearth of funds and viability gap funding from the Finance Ministry. The plan is to prioritise these projects and get investor response.

The Railways is open to private and foreign investment for key freight lines, aluminium coaches manufacturing units, locomotive maintenance depots, along with automatic signalling systems. In addition, the high-speed rail front too is open to private and foreign investments.