Konkan Railway Corp, operator of the railway line of the same name along the west coast of India, will be integrated into Indian state railway IR. The federal state of Maharashtra, the last remaining shareholder in the company, has approved the merger. The conditions for the merger were the payment of €40.8 million (INR 4 billion) and the retention of the name Konkan Railway. Konkan Railway Corp was founded in the 1970s as a special purpose vehicle to manage the 756 km line between Roha in southern Mumbai and Mangaluru. Since 1996/97, the Indian state has held a 51% stake in the railway operator, with the states of Maharashtra (22%), Karnataka (15%) as other minority stakeholders as well as Kerala and Goa each holding 6%. High infrastructure costs and limited access to capital have weighed heavily on Konkan Railway's finances. The merger with IR is now planned to enable financing by the central government and ensure faster implementation.
