Here's How Private Operators will Change Journey Experience on Indian Railways Railway Board discussed the issues related to the passenger trains' viability by the private makers
By Vinayak Sharma •
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Railway department is mulling over the idea of handing over operations of more trains to private players in the coming days on a few significant courses with improved administrations and enhancements for travelers. The decision has been taken up by the government entities under the 100 day agenda of the national transporter to pass on the operations of the trains to the private operators on key routes.
Indian Railways had concluded to allocate the operations of its luxurious Tejas Express to IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Transport Corporation) to run between Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Lucknow-New Delhi.
At the meeting chaired by the Member traffic, Railway Board, Introduction session was conducted related to the modern passenger trains to be operated by the private entities. This process of train selection would be accomplished through a transparent Request for Quote (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
"50 origin/destination pairs/routes were provisionally discussed. Zonal railways will examine the feasibility of bringing in the new trains emphasizing on the infrastructural projects and capacity enhancement works which are underway and those which are in the pipeline," the official said in a meeting.
Services like Luggage pick- ups and drops and value added services would be availed by the passengers after trains' privatization. Also, eyeing at the safety and security reasons, skilled train drivers will be allocated by IRCTC with the qualified certification.
According to the ET, IRCTC announced 5 October, 2019 as operational date of the first train (Tejas Express) equipped with the private facilities and yet to announce the date for the second train enroute Mumbai-Ahmedabad. Tejas Express to start its journey on 5 October will run on the Delhi-Lucknow route on all six days of the week except Tuesdays.
Railway officials announced in the meeting that besides Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, An inter city train service has been planned on 14 routes including 10 on overnight and long distance services and four suburban services.
