Question : Private Sector Participation in Passenger and Goods Transport

(a) whether the Government is considering to allow private players to run trains to improve passenger and goods transport and for developing railway zonal network and if so, the details thereof and the proposals in this regard;

(b) whether private players may be allowed to fix fares and set up terminals and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether there is a need to separate the goods and passenger sectors of railway network in the country and if so, the reaction of the Government in this regard alongwith the steps taken by the Government to separate the said sectors;

(d) whether there is a proposal to include the private players for the redevelopment of 600 stations of Indian railway in the country; and

(e) if so, the reaction received in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a) & (b): There is no proposal to privatise any area of operation of Railways. Participation of Private Sector has been allowed in construction and maintenance of Railway lines under various models
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of Participative Policy such as Non-Government Railway, Joint Venture, Build Operate & Transfer (BOT), Customer Funding and BOT-Annuity. In all these schemes, responsibility of trains operation and safety certification rests with Indian Railways. Government have also notified a Private Freight Terminal (PFT) policy in the year 2010 to facilitate setting up of freight terminals on private land through private investment.

(c): Goods and Passenger trains share the Railways’ infrastructure on most of the Indian Railways network. However, two Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) projects i.e. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Dankuni (West Bengal) to Ludhiana (Punjab) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (Maharashtra) to Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) have been sanctioned and their execution taken up to substantially shift the freight trains to these Corridors on these routes.

(d) & (e): Railways have a policy of redevelopment of major stations by leveraging commercial development of land and air space in and around Stations. Developers and investors have evinced keen interest in the programme.

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