Indian Railways to seek nearly $2 billion in outside financing

Indian Railways to seek nearly $2 billion in outside financing    The Indian Railways are expected to seek $1.8 billion in corporate financing from overseas and domestic markets to help fund its expected $6.2 billion capital expenditure program over the next five years, Indian press outlets reported Wednesday.
   The railways have embarked on an ambitious plan to accommodate growing volumes in passenger and freight traffic, and the outside financing will be expected to fund, among other projects, the completion of freight corridors linking India's major metropolitan areas with its largest ports.
   'The money will go into creating the proposed freight corridors, doubling of lines, electrification, gauge conversion and rolling stocks,' said V.N. Mathur, a traffic official with the railways, at a logistics conference in Calcutta Tuesday.
   The railways will internally provide another $2.5 billion for the building program and the rest is expected to come from development banks.