Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said he will meet US transport officials next month to finalise areas of cooperation between the two countries in the railway sector."I had fruitful discussions with the US Secretary of Transport during my last visit to the US and they were keen on engaging with India in the railway modernisation. I hope the next month's meeting in the US will help in taking the partnership forward," Prabhu said. Speaking at the second Indo-US Infrastructure Summit, he said the Indian Railways have already signed contracts worth Rs.40,000 crore with major global corporations. "American company General Electric and the French industry major Alstom have signed contracts with the Railways. I hope that more companies would be willing to invest in Indian Railways," he added.
The minister also said the capital expenditure in Indian Railways has touched an all-time high of Rs.1.39 lakh crore. "For the first time, the action taken report by the Railways was filed in Parliament and we will continue to do so. Work has already started on the proposals that I made in the budget speech", he said. He also spoke about decentralisation of authority in his ministry, claiming that he did not take any commercial decision as a minister. "All the responsibilities are delegated. We have empowered general managers and others to take expeditious decisions. I only get involved in policy making and decision at macro level", Prabhu said.The minister said the Railways would become more passenger friendly in the coming years."Railways receive the largest number of complaints daily; it will monitor complaints on real time basis in the times to come," he said.