US grant for Indian Railways

new delhi: the united states will provide a grant of $400,000 to the indian railways for further development of its strategic investment planning techniques based on geographic information system. an agreement to this effect was signed here on monday by h g sharma, executive director, on behalf of the ministry of railways, and samuel kidder, commercial counsellor in the us embassy, on behalf of the us trade and development agency in the presence of railway board chairman r n malhotra, an official release said.the railway has been using scientific techniques of project evaluation as part of its long range decision support system project. the first phase of the project has already been completed with the assistance of the world bank and the success of this phase has motivated the second phase, fully financed by railways, the release said. it said the us grant will be used for the third phase of the project, which has a total cost of $1.02 million. the railways has constituted a seven-member team comprising specialists to work with a team of international consultants for detailed analysis of traffic patterns and terminals to identify bottlenecks and binding constraints to suggest optimal investment strategies. this phase will also include the analysis of a transport corridor with a view to increasing rail competitveness vis-a-vis other modes of transport, the release said. the study will also involve estimation of critical efficiency parameters and setting of operational standards for improved asset utilisation.