During an informal chat with mediapersons while returning to Mumbai from Ratnagiri on board a special train, Nitish Kumar said that though detailed studies had already been conducted by three committees, their recommendations had not been implemented properly. The proposed committee will take into account these recommendations while preparing its report, he said.

The Minister claimed that various steps were being taken to improve the financial status of the railways, the proposal to `commercialise' excess railway land being one of them. ``We intend to use the sky space available by constructing multi-storeyed buildings. The ground floor will be used by the railways whilethe upper floors will be rented or leased out to private parties,'' he said.

However, he admitted that the Cabinet might not approve of such a proposal. ``A similar proposal was shot down by the Narasimha Rao Cabinet. They felt that it was unethical to use land procured for public transport for commercial purposes,'' he said.

The Railway Minister further said that there was no need to go in for privatisation of rail services. At present, two schemes offered to private entrepreneurs are `Own Your Wagon' scheme and the `Build Operate Lease Transfer Scheme', the minister said. But he was categorical that no private companies would be allowed to operate trains for Indian Railways.

According to him, funds were a major obstacle in the way of quick completion of projects. Presently, the Central Government lends money to railways at a dividend rate of seven per cent. He added that funds provided by institutions like the Indian Railway Financial Corporation (IRFC) came at a price. ``Recently, we got a Rs 2,600crore loan from IRFC, only to give back Rs 2,100 to clear previous debts. We ended up with just Rs 500 crore for our projects,'' he said.