50 railways routes to be privatised, private players to determine fares

The Modi government has decided to privatise the Indian Railways, the largest employer in the country, and hand over 50 origin-destination routes to private operators in the coming time, National Herald reported.

A meeting in this regard was held by the Railways Board this Friday.

“As a part of the 100 Day Action Plan, the Ministry of Railways has proposed the private operation of passenger trains be introduced to provide world class services. “Under the proposal, private operators would be identified through a Participative Bid Process to run private passenger day/overnight train connecting important cities. It is contemplated that the private operators shall induct modern passenger trains and operate them on path allocated to them on payment of haulage charges,” a communique released by the ministry ahead of the meeting read.

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“They will have the right to determine and collect fares in terms of a Concession Agreement being formulated for this purpose,” it read further.

According to National Herald sources, it was decided in the meeting that routes for long-distance travel such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow, Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Howrah, Secunderabad-Hyderabad, Secunderabad-Delhi, Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai, would be handed over to private players in the first phase of the project.