Indian Railways might soon take the privatisation route for operating local trains in four major Indian cities. According to news reports, Railways has proposed privatisation of suburban trains in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad in a move to increase its revenue. While handing over service operations in certain routes to private entities were already on cards, this was the first time that privatisation of suburban rail services were proposed.
A letter on the same has been forwarded by the Railway Board to zonal railways’ principal chief operating managers, a report by the Hindustan Times said. In addition to the proposed suburban routes, the managers were asked to study the viability of privatising the routes, finalise a list and present it at a meeting of railway officials on Friday, the report added.
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Railways has also proposed routes for long-distance travel, including Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow, Delhi-Jammu/Katra, Delhi-Howrah, Secunderabad-Hyderabad, Secunderabad-Delhi, Delhi- Chennai, Mumbai-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai. Railways has already finalised two routes Lucknow-Delhi and Mumbai-Ahembdabad route where private players will operate passenger trains.
The intercity routes identified for privatisation 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.
