Private trains in addition to existing trains, says Indian Railways

With Opposition political parties criticising the Indian Railways' proposal to allow private players to operate passenger carrying trains, national transporter on Thursday clarified that these trains will run in addition to existing trains.

"151 trains to be run by private operators would be over and above the already existing trains. These trains are going to run on the routes where the demand for trains are already higher than the existing capacity," the Railways said in a statement.

Earlier, the Railways formally kickstarted its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network by inviting request for qualifications (RFQ) for participation on 109 pairs of routes through 151 modern trains.

However, opposition political parties, including Congress and left parties, have opposed the move and alleged that the proposal would snatch a cheap mode of transportation from poor. The Railways employees' union also opposed this proposal.

The Railways clarified that the introduction of private trains is in addition to existing trains to cater to the increasing demand with quality service. In 2019, a total of 8.4 billion passengers travelled in trains while the number will be 30 billion by 2030. To keep up with the demand, they will continue to introduce new trains, the statement said.

"The Indian Railways network is about 68,000 route kilometers. In the year 2018-19, the reserved passenger volume was 16% (0.59 billion) of the total originating non-suburban passengers (3.65 billion). Almost 8.85 crore of waitlisted passengers could not be accommodated," a Railways official said.

The objective of this initiative is to introduce modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance, reduced transit time, boost job creation, provide enhanced safety, provide world class travel experience to passengers, and also reduce demand supply deficit in the passenger transportation sector.

The Ministry of Railways felt the need to introduce private participation in the operation of passenger trains so that new technologies and better service (ensuring improved coach technology and reduced journey time) could be deployed in its operations.