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Railways eyes ning between Lucknow and Delhi and

announcing plans to privatize the run-
ning of as many as 150 passenger trains.
private funds The Tejas Express will be run by IRCTC, a
subsidiary of the Railways. So there is not
much real privatization there, to begin
with. IRCTC cannot have been expected
to run faster on to drive a hard bargain for itself, but that
will happen when full-fledged private
firms bid for various tasks.
Railway unions are opposing the
growth track move to open the floodgates for private
participation. They fear that lakhs of
employees will become jobless or no
longer have job security. The best way
the government can allay these appre-
Private funding of railways on the line of Bibek Debroy Panel’s hensions is to establish the long-overdue
railway regulatory authority. It is worth
recommendations is likely to improve services, writes bharat hiteshi mentioning here Debroy Committee was
not the only one to suggest an independ-
n October 16, 2019, Piyush ies could be between 3,000 crores and ent regulator that can promote healthy
Goyal, the Union Railways 4,000 crores. The Indian Railways’ plan competition and protect the interests
Minister tweeted from his to develop 400 railway stations has made of various stakeholders, but also by the
official handle about Rail- little progress and the national trans- Rakesh Mohan Committee in 2001 had
O ways gift to Maa Vaishno porter has drawn flak from Niti, given the suggested on the same lines.
Devi’s worshippers by launching Vande plan is moving at a glacial pace. Another good that the Railways is
Bharat Express from Delhi to Katra. This Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant in a doing is that it is going in for renewable
was a clear indicator that Railways was recent letter addressed to Railway Board
working overtime to improve services Chairman VK Yadav said that there is
and be more people-friendly. a ‘necessity’ to take up the matter of
It may be recalled that Bibek Debroy, developing at least 50 stations on a pri-
an economist, author and bureaucrat ority basis. The letter quoted him saying
led a committee that suggested that that “Considering the recent experience
the entry of new operators into railway in the privatisation of six airports, a simi-
operations would give a fillip to growth lar process for setting up an Empowered
and improve Indian Railway services. Group of Secretaries to drive the process
Now the government has formed an em- is required.”
powered group to prepare a feasibility The Niti Aayog wants these projects
plan for upgrading 50 railway stations should be taken up on a Build-Operate-
to world-class standards and allowing Transfer basis so that there is no financial
private players to operate 150 trains. burden on the public sector alone.
This comes on the heels of the pri- The development follows the flag-off
vatisation of six airports in the country. of India’s ‘first private semi-high speed
The NITI Aayog, a policy think tank of the train’, the Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas
Government, established with the aim to Express. Tejas, run by the Indian Rail-
achieve sustainable development goals, way Catering and Tourism Corporation
is pushing for a comprehensive plan (IRCTC), offers facilities for rail pas -
that envisages a holistic development of sengers that were virtually unheard of
the area around railway stations, which earlier in the country — 25-lakh travel
has strong potential to draw private insurance, luggage pick-up and drop,
investment. and monetary compensation in case
Inquiries reveal that the cost of ho- of delays.
listic development of railway stations in In fact, the Indian Railways has
metro cities in India is pegged at about launched itself on the road to privatiza-
10,000 crores, while that in tier-2 cit- tion by flagging off the Tejas Express run-

Tehelka / 15 november 2019 40 www.Tehelka.com