trendingNow,recommendedStories,recommendedStoriesMobileenglish2000721

Where is the money to buy new wagons?

With an empty coffers and just a few days in office, new government's railway budget is high on right intentions and nothing much, says Titagarh Wagons executive chairman J P Chowdhury. Also, despite the right noise on foreign direct investment, inflows are not likely to happen any time soon, Chowdhury told dna in an exclusive interview.

Where is the money to buy new wagons?

There wasn't much announcement on freight and wagons, on which fortunes of companies like Titagarh Wagons depends. Was it disappointing?
If I were the railways minister, I couldn't made a better budget than this. But the whole government is bankrupt. So, you can't expect big-ticket investments on their own. But the positive thing is that the minister sounded very bullish by saying that in spite of all these problems we would move ahead.

The announcement on FDI wasn't taken as a very positive signal by the stock market. Why?
Allowing FDI doesn't mean the funds will start flowing in right away. I think we are over-emphasising on FDI. The government has to further think about innovative ways to bring in funds. Under the circumstances, the direction the budget has shown is very positive.

So, the right intentions and directions are there but they needs articulation..
They have to be articulated and I believe it would be done. It is now a dynamic situation and not unlike the previous government where decisions taken weren't acted upon for years together.

The budget talked of attracting investments through the Public Private Partnership route. Do you see opportunities there?
The minister mentioned PPP but not in a specific way. We would have loved some detailed proposals on PPP but then again, you can't expect much from a one-month old government where the minister got appointed only 15 days back.

The budget was silent on wagon procurements...
We would have loved the minister to talk on this. But then the arithmetic wouldn't have worked out. Where is the money to buy?

LIVE COVERAGE

TRENDING NEWS TOPICS
More