New Delhi: The Cabinet on Wednesday approved cutting the railway land licensing fee by three - a fourth - from 6 % to 1.5 % of the market value of land per annum for setting up cargo-related projects for 35 years, which can further be extended up to another 35 years.
This change in railway land policy will now speed up the sale of the Centre's stake in the state-owned Container Corporation India ( Concor ). This will help strategic buyers pay much lesser amounts as land rentals and this was one of the key suggestions by the investment advisors of Concor.
Currently, such leases are for only five years. The Indian Railways has around 60,000 hectares of vacant land, predominantly along the rail tracks and the Concor has around 250 hectares spread over 26 locations across the country. The change in policy comes at a time when the government has set the target to develop 300 new cargo terminals under the new railway policy in the next five years.
Officials said the existing players will continue to pay 6 % unless they decide to participate in the bidding process for the new 1.5 % base rate.
Railway minister Ashwi ni Vashnaw said, " The approval of the new railways land policy for the PM Gati Shakti framework will result in multifold growth in logistics infrastructure of the country. " Union information and broadcasting minister Anu rag Thakur said the setting up of 300 cargo terminals will generate around 1.25
lakh jobs.
