India seeks private cash for rail lines

New Delhi

INDIA is targeting up to US$1 billion of private investment by 2017 to build rail lines linking ports and national networks to ease growing congestion, which has delayed coal imports for power plants and contributed to a power supply crisis.

Such investment would more than double the US$400 million that India's state-owned railways have attracted in the decade since they allowed limited private participation and help fund crucial "last mile" links to ports.