Railway ministry officials said this would be a direct impact of the decision of the Union Cabinet, which had on September 2 approved a policy on long-term leasing of Railway land as well as a proposal to develop 300 Gati Shakti cargo terminals over the next five years.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters on Thursday that the ministry has got a very good response after the launch of the Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy in December 2021.
He expressed confidence that the target of 300 terminals is very achievable.
“We already have 150 firm proposals — about 93 applications have been received to build terminals and about 65 entities have expressed their interest,” he said.
He also said the land leasing policy will remain the same for existing terminal holders including public sector undertakings such as Concor, Food Corporation of India, Coal India Ltd and Steel Authority of India Ltd.
The new players will come through a transparent bidding process. Vaishnaw further said that once the lease ends, the existing players will have the option to switch to the new policy via the bidding process. He said that after decades of losing market share in logistics, last year Railways began to gain market share and once the 300 terminals are made, the Railways will get more cargo.
