16.2.10

National Transport Development Policy Committee snippets

In a move that also rehabilitates former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor and infrastructure expert Rakesh Mohan, the government has set up a National Transport Development Policy Committee to chalk out a multimodal strategy to meet the country's transport needs for the next 20 years. Mohan, who chairs the committee, has been accorded a Minister of State (MoS) rank and given 18 months to submit his recommendations.
Rakesh Mohan had quit the Reserve Bank in May 2009, almost a year before his five-year term was to end to take up an offer as Distinguished Consulting Professor at the Stanford Centre for International Development in Stanford University.He was in the race for the RBI governorship after Y V Reddy completed his term in September 2008. But the government appointed then finance secretary D Subbarao as the governor.
The committee,approved by the Prime Minister, includes Dinesh Mohan from IIT, Delhi, Infosys director Mohandas Pai, IDFC managing director Rajiv Lall, Great Eastern Shipping MD Bharat Seth, and secretaries in the ministries of coal, petroleum and natural gas, civil aviation, road transport and highways, finance, urban development and power besides the chairman of the Railway Board.
Interestingly, given the mixed experience India has had with public private partnerships, the committee has been asked to assess the investment needs of the sector and identify the roles of state and the private sector in meeting these. It will suggest modifications to PPP norms, if required. Given the economic, demographic and technological trends at local, national and global levels, the committee will compare the cost advantages of various modes of transport.Its terms of reference also include making recommendations to ensure universal rural connectivity, besides addressing the special problems of remote and difficult areas on the one hand and of urban and metropolitan areas on the other.
A government official said it is for the first time that the needs of the transport sector are being studied in a holistic fashion by drawing inputs from user industries such as oil, gas, power and coal. "Pipelines to move oil and gas are a means of transport today just as much as are roadways or shipping. So are transmission lines in the power sector," the official said.
"It is also important that needs of user industries such as coal are taken on board in working out transportation needs for the future decades.Coal is the biggest user of Railways and many thermal power plants in coastal regions will be fired by imported coal," the official said.

1 comment:

Packers Movers said...

In a move that also rehabilitates former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor and infrastructure expert Rakesh Mohan, the government has set up a National Transport Development Policy Committee to chalk out a multimodal strategy to meet the country's transport needs for the next 20 years.