Pitroda to head Railway Modernization Committee

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As the Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi tabled Union Rail Budget 2012-13 in the Parliament today, modernization remained high on his agenda, among other things. Trivedi informed the Parliament that Rs. 5.60 lakh crore would be required for modernization.

PM advisor on infrastructure and innovation Sam Pitroda will head Railway Modernization Committee which will oversee implementation of a multitude of ICT-driven reforms in the Indian Railways.

Trivedi announced many such programs during the budgetary speech. The ministry's main focus is to facilitate infrastructure. It plans to modernize 19,000 km of railway tracks, and telecom services for which it will invest Rs 39,110 crore in 5 years.

Trivedi also bats for satellite-based real-time information trains in 18 months. CIOL was the first to report that the Union Budget is likely to focus on rail modernization.