In the 167-year history of Indian Railway, this is possibly the first time Railways has come this far on the route to privatization. Railways has invited ‘Request for Qualifications’ from private entities to operate train services on existing rail infrastructure. Train operations are for 109 origin-destination (OD) pairs of routes using 151 modern trains in 12 clusters and 5% of the Railway’s Mail and Express services.
Undoubtedly, privatisation will be a structural change for Railways. With a route length of 67,415 kilometers, one ofthe world’s four largest rail networks, it is now facing keen competition, with passengers and freight shifting to other modes of travel. Private sector investment is indeed welcome.
From a passenger perspective, there is a need for more train services, particularly between big cities, with the Railway Board claiming that 50 million passengers could not be accommodated during 2019-20 for want of capacity, with a 13.3% travel demand oversupply during summer and festival seasons. Privatisation will create class divisions among passengers. Just like the private and government hospitals,
the Railways-run train will become the poor man’s train and the private trains — with better seating, cleanliness, more facilities fora higher fare — will become the rich man’s train.
Ultimately, Railways should build tracks and infrastructure and let private operators run trains to promote competition, efficiency and to protect consumer interest. Despite the concern over two classes of trains, while private operators take care of the premium segment, Railways can provide more services to the common man.
Our July issue focuses on exciting topics such as CBTC, Electric Traction Systems, Third Rail, Pantograph and also provides a cover story on Privatisation of Railway. Ahmedabad, Surat Metro, Dholera Metro Project cover under the project of the month and exclusive Interviews of Mr. S N Subrahmanyan, CEO and MD of L&T and Dr. Mangu Singh, MD, DMRC along with other regular columns such as new development in metro the project, pre/post-event coverage, technology updates, News analysis, Article, opinions, Awards, appointments, News around the world, live tenders, Industry contract, upcoming events and current job openings.
I would also like to express my most profound appreciation to all our readers for your constant support, and our valuable authors, reviewers, for their contributions, service, and interest.
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