Question : Strategic Disinvestment in Railways

(a) whether the Government proposes to hand over the operation of passenger trains and freight operations to private players;

(b) if so, the details thereof, including origin, destination, pairs of routes, etc. that are being considered;

(c) the details of strategic disinvestment in Undertakings under the Ministry of Railways since 2016, including details of strategic buyers;

(d) whether the Government is considering strategic disinvestment or sale of minority stake in Undertakings under the Ministry of Railways; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) and (b) 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. The responsibility of train operations and safety certification rests with Indian Railways.
As far as freight trains are concerned, at present, Container trains are being operated by licensed Private Container Operators under the policy adopted in 2006.

(c) There has been no strategic disinvestment in Undertakings under the Ministry of Railways since 2016.

(d) and (e) Decision has been taken by the Cabinet for Strategic Disinvestment of Government of India shareholding of 30.8% in CONCOR (out of 54.8% presently held by the Government of India) along with transfer of management control to a strategic buyer.
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