Indian Railways is planning to involve private players in train operations on several important routes with improved services and amenities for passengers.
Sources close to the development said Indian Railways has identified 24 important routes where private players can be invited to operate trains in the coming years. The decision to invite private players for train operations on key routes comes under the 100 days' agenda of Indian Railways.
Railway ministry sources said Railways has convened a meeting of its senior officials on Friday under the chairmanship of Member Traffic of Railway Board to decide the operational issues relating to private operations of passenger trains.
Among the routes identified for privatisation, Delhi - Katra/Jammu, Delhi - Howrah, Delhi - Chennai, Delhi - Secunderabad, Mumbai - Chennai, Howrah - Chennai, Howrah - Mumbai and Secunderabad - Hyderabad have been proposed for long haul trains. Railways is also mulling getting private players in suburban train operations. For suburban train operations, Railways has identified Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad. Intercity routes have also been identified which include Mumbai - Pune, Mumbai - Aurangabad, Mumbai - Madgaon, Delhi - Chandigarh/Amritsar, Delhi - Jaipur, Howrah - Puri, Howrah - Tata, Howrah - Patna, Secunderabad - Vijaywada, Chennai - Bengaluru, Chennai - Coimbatore, Chennai - Madurai and Ernakulam - Thiruvananthapuram.
Under the Railways proposal, private operators would be identified through a participative bid process.
Railways has already finalised two routes Lucknow-Delhi and Mumbai-Ahembdabad route where private players will operate passenger trains. Initially, IRCTC will operate the train for the next couple of months and then a bid process will be initiated by IRCTC to get private players to run Tejas Express trains on the mentioned routes. IRCTC has started booking of tickets for Tejas Express between Lucknow and New Delhi from October 5 onwards. IRCTC's Tejas Express will be flagged off from Lucknow on October 4.
The railway ministry has maintained that the execution of getting a private player to run the train will be done only after taking railway unions and other stakeholders on board.
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