Cabinet approves railways regulator

The RDA will be formed through an executive order of the government, according to the cabinet decision. Sources said that it will make suggestions regarding policies for private investment.

The proposal of setting up an independent rail development authority (RDA) to determine tariffs and ensuring fair play for private operators, was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. The proposal was in the pipeline since the UPA-I regime. It could not be formalised during all these years due to several hurdles.

The RDA will be formed through an executive order of the government, according to the cabinet decision. Sources said that it will make suggestions regarding policies for private investment to ensure reasonable safeguards to PPP investors and to resolve disputes over future concession agreements. The authority will have a chairman and three members. It can engage experts from relevant areas. The chairman and the members of RDA will have a term of five years. An initial corpus of `50 crore will be provided for the setting up of the organisation.

RDA will help the government to take appropriate decisions on pricing of services commensurate with costs, suggest measures for enhancement of non-fare revenue, protection of consumer interests, promote competition, encourage market development and create a positive environment for investments. The chairman and members will have a tenure of five years and can be removed by the central government on certain grounds like insolvency, conviction, misbehaviour, physical and mental incapability.

In another decision, the union cabinet the implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems (CCTNS) project by a year, which aims to create a national database of crimes and criminals. The extension is till March 2018. “The cabinet approves one-year extension of implementation of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project beyond March 31, 2017,” an official spokesperson said.