MoR signs MoUs with four states

The Ministry of Railways (MoR) signed MoUs with the Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala governments to form JV companies. According to the MoU, each JV company will have 51 per cent stake held by the state government and 49 per cent MoR stake. It will be responsible for identifying projects, acquiring land, financing in addition to government funding, and project monitoring. Once the financial closure of a project is achieved, a project-specific special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed, which can have other stakeholders with the JV company being the mandatory stakeholder having a minimum 26 per cent equity stake in the SPV. The MoR will then sign a concession agreement of 30 years with the project SPV for safe and sound operation, revenue sharing and the provision of technical and marketing logistics to the SPV. At the end of the concession period, the MoR will have the option to take over the assets at a nominal price.