Cabinet may consider lowering rail land rentals this week
The Union Cabinet may give its nod this week to a proposal to cut land licensing fee (LLF) for industrial users of railway land to “2-3%” of the value of land as against 6% now.
The approval of the much-awaited LLF policy will facilitate implementation of PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity, essentially a digital platform to bring 16 ministries including railways and roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
Among the civilian government agencies, the railways is the largest landholder with 1.134 million acres. Of these, about 100,000 acres were vacant land. Railways is keen to accelerate the pace of commercial exploitation of land utilization for various public and private sector projects.
The new LLF policy will also pave way for privatisation of Container Corporation of India (ConCor), which may have to fork out much lesser amounts as land rentals to Indian Railways. The new policy may extend the land lease period from 5 years to 35 years or more.
