(a) the number of Railway routes being planned to privatise /allow private railways along with the reasons behind such a move;
(b) the number of such private operators are operating routes in railways now and details of any study made on passenger experience or feedback;
(c) the revenue likely to be generated by the Railways with the privatization proposal; and
(d) the time by which the above proposal is likely to be implemented?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) Ministry of Railways have constituted a Group of Secretaries (GoS) in 2019, with a term of one year, inter-alia, to advise on the terms and conditions for private passenger train operators to operate trains with world class technology covering the Indian Railways network and provide world class services. The GoS has so far held seven meetings. The draft Request for Qualification and the draft Concession Agreement have been uploaded on the websites of Niti Aayog and Indian Railways for seeking feedback from the stakeholders. A tentative list of 107 Origin-Destination pairs (clusterwise) has been uploaded as annexure along with the draft Request for Qualification.
(b) At present, no passenger train service over Indian Railways network is being operated by private operators. Therefore, Passenger feedback in this regard does not arise.
(c) The likely revenue to be generated can be estimated only after the completion of the bidding process.
(d) The contours of the project are under finalization.
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