After Tejas, India is now planning to privatise over 50 stations and 150 trains

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): The Government of India has stepped up efforts to privatise railway stations and trains in the country. Tejas Express, the country's first private semi-high speed train, has been flagged off by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. With this, the central government has started the process of privatising 50 railway stations and 150 trains. NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant has written a letter to Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav. In it, he wrote, "As you already know that the Ministry of Railways has decided to bring private train operators to operate passenger trains and is considering taking 150 trains under it in the first phase." [caption id="attachment_8148" align="alignnone" width="538"] NITI Aayog CEO writes a letter to Chairman Railway Board on privatisation of Railways[/caption] Regarding the privatization of 50 railway stations, Kant said that he had talked in detail to the railway minister about this and felt the need to prioritize the matter. Kant said that for effective implementation of these projects, Member (Engineering) Railway Board, Member (Traffic) Railway Board would have to join a group. In a recent media interview, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said:

Private operators are expected to bring in their own trainsets, state-of-the-art technology and innovative ways of providing passenger amenities and finding new luggage-handling solutions.

In response to a question on how many trains are being planned to privatise, he said:

The Indian railways will have 150 private trains to start with. We are still working on the routes that will go for bidding. We will run these trains in the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors and also in other viable stretches.

Sources said that Railway Board has asked officials to enlist “potentially viable and operationally feasible” routes to privatise. The following 24 routes are listed on which potential private trains will be run initially. These routes include long-distance and overnight trains, inter-city trains and suburban trains. Overnight and long-distance trains

• Delhi-Mumbai
• Delhi-Lucknow
• Delhi-Jammu/Katra
• Delhi-Howrah
• Secunderabad-Hyderabad
• Secunderabad-Delhi
• Delhi-Chennai
• Mumbai-Chennai
• Howrah-Chennai
• Howrah-Mumbai

Intercity trains

• Mumbai-Ahmedabad
• Mumbai-Pune
• Mumbai-Aurangabad
• Mumbai-Madgaon
• Delhi-Chandigarh/Amritsar
• Delhi-Jaipur/Ajmer
• Howrah-Puri
• Howrah-Tata
• Howrah-Patna
• Secunderabad-Vijaywada
• Chennai-Bengaluru
• Chennai-Coimbatore
• Chennai-Madurai
• Ernakulam-Trivandrum

Suburban trains

• Mumbai
• Kolkata
• Chennai
• Secunderabad

In a letter written to Railway Board, it has been said that an empowered Group of Secretaries comprising of CEO NITI Aayog, Chairman Railway Board, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) may be constituted to drive the process in a time-bound manner.