Ministry of Railways has constituted an expert committee for modernisation of Indian Railways under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda, the advisor to prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, which has been given time of two months to submit its interim report and up to March 31, 2012 to submit a final report. The information was provided by Bharatsinh Solanki, minister of State for Railways, in reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha.

The committee recommendations would include ways and means to modernise Indian Railways to meet the challenges of economic growth, the aspirations of the common man, the needs of changing technology and the expanding market, while at the same time ensuring adequate focus on addressing social and strategic requirements of the country in consonance with Railways’ national aspirations.

The terms of the reference of the committee also includes recommendations on strategies for modernisation of Railways with a focus on track, signaling, rolling stock, stations and terminals, for improving efficiency and safety, augmenting existing capacities of Railways through indigenous development and review of projects and PPP issues.