Question : Plan for Privatisation of Railways

(a) the details of the plan chalked out for privatisation of Railways;

(b) the routes that have been planned by the Government to be handed over to private operators;

(c) whether the privatisation is likely to be restricted to only passenger trains or will it also include goods trains and if so, the details in this regard;

(d) whether there are plans to privatise any rail routes in North East India and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government proposes to introduce new trains from Assam to Delhi or any other important locations in the country and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) whether the Government is planning to add more stoppages for important trains to Delhi and other locations in Assam and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (d): No, Sir. There is no proposal to privatise the Indian Railways (IR). However, it is estimated that Indian Railways would need capital investment of ? 50 lakh crores up to the year 2030 for network expansion and capacity augmentation, rolling stock induction and other modernization works to enable better delivery of passenger and freight services and to improve its modal share in transport. To bridge


the gap in Capital Funding and bring in modern technology and efficiencies, it is planned to use Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in few initiatives including induction of modern rakes to run passenger trains on select routes with an objective to provide improved service delivery to passengers. However, the work of train operations and safety certification will continue to be with Indian Railways in all such cases.

Ministry of Railways (MoR) has invited applications for investment and induction of modern rakes over select routes through Public Private Partnership (PPP) to provide world class services to the passengers. As part of this initiative, MoR have issued 12 Requests for Qualification (RFQs) on 1st July, 2020 for operation of passenger trains over approximately 109 origin-destination pairs (divided into 12 clusters) through PPP on Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) basis. The routes are spread across the entire Indian Railway network and the list is available in the public domain namely, http://www.indianrailways.gov. in/IndicativeRoutesfor12clusters.pdf

(e) & (f): Indian Railway does not run trains on State-wise basis as Railway Network straddles across state boundaries. Besides, at present, all regular passenger train services are under cancellation, in view of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, there is no immediate proposal for introduction of trains or for provision of additional stoppages of the trains, including the trains serving the state of Assam. However, introduction of trains and provision of stoppages is an ongoing process on Indian Railway subject to operational feasibility, traffic demand, availability of resources, etc.
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