Railways digitising vacant rail land records for monetisation

Aiming at commercial exploitation of surplus land, Railways is digitising records related to vacant plots owned by it across the country. Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land which can be exploited commercially. Land that is not required for operational purposes in the foreseeable future is being identified by all zones as vacant land, said a senior Railway Ministry official. ‘Digitisation of vacant plots, measuring more than an acre, has been completed. A blue print is being chalked out for their monetisation,ö he added. Besides, a web-based application integrated with the Railways’ Track Management System (TMS) has been developed. Railways has also started mapping all fixed assets on GIS with ISRO’s help.