Deepak Parekh, HDFC Bank chairman , M S Verma, former SBI chairman , Raghuram, professor at IIM- Ahmedabad , Rajiv Lal, IDFC managing director, and Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of Feedback Infrastructure Services, will be members of the committee. "We are looking at the Railways to be taken to the fourth generation. We have set up a committee which will look into the modernisation in railways," railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said while announcing the decision to constitute the panel.
He said the economy would grow at about 8% provided Indian Railways grow at 10% or 12%. Railways was and will definitely be the engine of growth, he added.
Referring to the Vision 2020 document, Pitroda said, "This document had envisaged modernisation. Now the time is ripe to take this vision for execution at a high speed. The basic ground work for modernisation was done during (former railway minister) Mamata Bannerjee's regime."
Railways had earlier constituted a high-level committee on safety, under the chairmanship of nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, which will suggest ways to prevent rail accidents.
Asked where the funds will come for modernisation, Pitroda said, "We realise that when we talk about modernisation. If we want to improve the infrastructure, then railways cannot do that alone. Railways is capable of running trains. But investments have to come from private sector for modernisation of coaches, wagons and new track laying. We require private funding. We require massive funding."
Giving details of the committee's task, Pitroda said, "This is the right time to look into Mamata's Vision 2020 document and focus on its execution. Our job is to look into key areas - track, signalling and rolling stock."