Private train operations are likely to begin by April 2023
Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav on Thursday announced that the private train operations are expected to begin by April 2023. The Indian Railways will procure all the coaches under Make in India policy before the deadline. The chairman of the board also said that the fare of the private trains will be competitive as the prices on other modes of transport like airlines, buses have to be kept in mind.
This announcement comes a day after, the Railways formally kickstarted its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network by inviting requests for qualifications (RFQ) for participation on 109 pairs of routes through 151 modern trains. The project would entail a private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore, the national transporter said.
While addressing a press conference, Railway Board Chairman Yadav said, "Private participation in passenger train operations will mean a quantum jump in technology, higher speeds. While private participation in passenger train operations will only be 5 percent of the total operations of Railways."
Yadav assured that the passengers will experience a safe journey as the Railways will keep checking the performances of these private trains. "If any performance indicators are not met by private players in passenger train operations they will be penalised," Yadav said.
"Train sets have to be brought by private operators and maintained by them," he added.
