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INDIAN Rail Minister Sadananda Gowda confirmed the new Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) government’s neoliberal commitment today by proposing foreign capital investment in the country’s publicly owned railways.
Mr Gowda outlined plans for a network of high-speed trains, with the first project slated to connect the financial capital Mumbai with Ahmedabad in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
The proposals unveiled in an annual rail budget will delight foreign speculators eager to get their hands on the country’s public assets.
Mr Modi said that the rail plans indicated “where we want to take the railways and through that where we want to take India.”
Mr Gowda said that fare rises alone could not finance rail modernisation, touting “partnerships” between government and private companies.
One of the government’s first acts on taking office was to raise rail passenger fares.
The BJP government is due to unveil its first national budget tomorrow.
