Indian Railways plans to spend 240 billion rupees (5.5 billion US dollars) over the next five years to upgrade infrastructure and build special freight corridors, Indian Railways Minister R. Velu said Thursday.

Speaking at the 20th World Executive Council Meeting of International Union of Railways, the minister said Indian Railways, which runs over 13,000 trains every day and carries 14 million passengers, is performing well and further efforts are on to strengthen infrastructure.

Velu said his ministry is concentrating on developing dedicated freight corridors and laying new lines for Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern provinces.

Railway Board Chairman J.P. Batra said that since freight is a major source of railway earnings, accounting for around 65 percent, the board is panning to develop special corridors from Delhi to Mumbai and Delhi to Kolkata.

At present, there are two surveys being conducted to study the feasibility of the project, one by the state-run Rail India Technical and Economic Services and the other by a Japanese company.

Source: Xinhua