In a bid to overhaul the rail sector in India, railways has initiated the process of addressing several key areas including upgradation of rail roller shops, improvement in traffic management, cleanliness and quality of railway platforms and most importantly, customer satisfaction. Railways has had several backward and forward linkages and the sector had the potential to significantly contribute to India’s growth, said Suresh Prabhu, union minister, Railways at FICCI’s 88th Annual General Meeting. In his special address, Prabhu said that the Railway Ministry has adopted a five year plan model to turn the sector around, work on which had been initiated. The investment cycle for the sector is about 3-5 years and the ministry intends to synchronise this with the country’s Five Year Plans. It is most critical that a proper lifecycle assessment of the projects is done and the correct projects are identified. In order to witness a dramatic positive change in the sector, it will be imperative to have a repetition of this investment cycle over the course of at least next 3-4 five year plans. Prabhu said that the Ministry of Railways has submitted a White Paper on the ‘Challenges of the Railways’ to the Parliament. This white paper is an objective assessment of the difficulties being faced by the sector. There is a need to work with a sense of urgency to bring about a significant improvement.