Indian Railways has launched the process of opening up train operations to private entities on 109 Origin Destination (OD) pairs of routes using 151 modern trains.
It has invited Request for Qualifications proposals, for scrutiny of vendor capabilities, from those who can bring modern trains for operations on existing rail infrastructure. The Railway Board has set a tentative schedule for private train operations, expected to begin in 2023 and in 12 clusters.
The present invitation for private operators to submit qualification bids for 151 trains would be, in the assessment of the Railway Board, only for a fraction of the total train operations — 5% of the 2,800 Mail and Express services operated by Indian Railways.
Tejas trains
Earlier, in 2019, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), in which the government is the majority shareholder, was given pilot Tejas trains operations in the New Delhi-Lucknow, and Mumbai-Ahmedabad sectors. These were the first trains allowed to be run by a ‘non-Railway’ operator.
The present move takes another step towards competing passenger train operations, bringing new-generation trains and attracting investments of an estimated ₹30,000 crore.
Bibek Debroy committee?
In 2015, the expert panel chaired by Bibek Debroy constituted by the Ministry of Railways, recommended that the way forward for the railways was “liberalisation and not privatisation” in order to allow entry of new operators “to encourage growth and improve services.”
Eduindex News 