Government is set to give free will to private railway companies to set the passenger fares, a move intended for luring investors, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led administration opens up the railway network.
“Private players have been given the freedom to fix fares in their own way,” VK Yadav, chairman of Railway Board, said. But, “air-conditioned buses and planes also operate on those routes, and they have to keep that in mind before setting fares.”
In July, the Narendra Modi government had asked RFQs for private players for the operation of passenger train services on 109 Origin-Destination (OD) pairs of routes through the introduction of 151 modern trains. The Railways had chosen about 100 routes to run 150 private passenger trains in December last year.
However, earlier in March, before the lockdown was imposed, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said in Rajya Sabha that the union government had no plans to privatise the Railways now or in future as it is the property of the people.
Goyal was responding to the discussion on the working of the Railways Ministry which went for two days. Replying to concerns raised by MPs about the potential sale of the Railways, Goyal had said there was no such proposal. However, there would be public-private partnerships.
