Railway opens door to invest Rs 22,500 crore for private train operators

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): To put rail transportation services on fast-track, Railway Board is moving ahead swiftly with its ambitious plan to allow private train operators to run trains on the Indian Railways network.

Recently, NITI Aayog and Indian Railway have put a draft plan for an estimated investment of Rs 22,500 crores for discussion purposes with the various stakeholders. This mega investment plan will be a game-changer both for the Indian Railways and passengers who will benefit from world-class train services.

According to the plan, the private train operators will be allowed to charge passengers market-linked railway fares whereas Indian Railways will provide track and signalling infrastructure and take haulage charges from the private operators.

"No similar scheduled regular train will depart in the same origin-destination route within 15 minutes of the scheduled operation of the concessionaires (private players) train," said in the draft document.

The Central government cabinet has already given its nods to Indian Railways for upgrading the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes to 160 km/h and the routes identified for the operations of private trains mostly fall on these two lines of the Golden Quadrilateral. Private operators will be allowed to operate their own trains as per the standards set by Indian Railways. In this regard, the NITI Aayog has listed 10-12 clusters with over 100 routes that will enable private operators to run a minimum of 16-coach trains on these routes. Indian Railways is hoping to reduce the number of waitlisted passengers as well with over 150 private trains on 100 routes.

Here is a list of 100 routes identified to allow private train operators to run over 150 Rolling Stock (trains):- MUMBAI CLUSTER 1

• Kalburgi-Panvel Triweekly
• Panvel-Madgaon Triweekly
• Panvel-Aurangabad Biweekly
• Ajni-Panvel Daily
• Panvel-Chennai Biweekly
• Pune-Guwahati Weekly
• Panvel-Manduadih Daily
• Panvel-Kanpur Daily

MUMBAI CLUSTER 2

• Mumbai Central-New Delhi Daily
• Jogeshwari-Tilak Bridge Daily
• Dadar-Vatva Daily
• Udhna-Dadar Daily
• Dadar-Vadodara Daily
• Bandra (T)-Jaipur Weekly
• Indore-Okhla Daily
• Bandra (T)-Akola Triweekly
• Udhna-Asansol Weekly

MUMBAI CLUSTER 3

• Panvel-Santragachi Daily
• Hadapsar-Okhla Daily
• Parel-Shirdi Triweekly
• Parel-Kolhapur Weekly
• Habibganj-Hadapsar Biweekly
• Allahabad-Panvel Weekly
• Allahabad-Pune Weekly
• Patna-Hadapsar Weekly

MUMBAI CLUSTER 4

• Udhna-Manduadih Weekly
• Udhna-Patna Weekly
• Indore-Danapur Triweekly
• Allahabad-Ahmedabad Weekly
• Kanpur-Bandra (T) Biweekly
• Gorakhpur-Jogeshwari Biweekly
• Ajmer-Jogeshwari Daily
• Sant Hirdaram Nagar-Bandra (T) Daily

DELHI CLUSTER 1

• Anand Vihar-Darbhanga Biweekly
• New Delhi-New Rishikesh Daily
• Holambi Kalan-Chheharta 6 days
• Holambi Kalan-Chandigarh Daily
• Anand Vihar-Katra 6 days
• New Delhi-Haridwar Daily
• Faizabad-Bhatinda Daily
• Lucknow-Jammu Tawi 6 days

DELHI CLUSTER 2

• Okhla-TCTB Daily
• Chennai-Okhla Daily
• Tilak Bridge-Gomtinagar Daily
• Bijwasan-Sabarmati Daily
• Anand Vihar-Bhagalpur Weekly

DELHI CLUSTER 3

• Chandigarh-Sultanpur Biweekly
• New Delhi-Chandigarh 6 days
• Ambala-Allahabad Daily
• Kanpur-New Delhi Daily
• Lalkuan-Delhi 5 days
• New Delhi-Gorakhpur Biweekly
• New Delhi-Manduadih Daily
• Shakurbasti-Ajmer Daily
• Habibganj-Holambi Kalan Biweekly
• Kota-Nizamuddin Daily
• Bandra (T)-Jaipur Weekly
• TCTB-Jaipur Weekly
• Jaipur-Udhampur 6 days
• Jaipur-Kota Daily

PATNA CLUSTER 1

• New Delhi-Patna Daily
• Gaya-Anand Vihar Triweekly
• Panvel-Patna Weekly
• Darbhanga-Jogeshwari Weekly
• Patliputra-TCTB 5 days
• Gorakhpur-TCTB Biweekly
• Allahabad-TCTB Weekly

GUWAHATI CLUSTER 1

• Guwahati-Tilak Bridge Triweekly
• Katihar-Tilak Bridge Triweekly
• Kishanganj-Tilak Bridge Weekly
• Barauni-Anand Vihar Biweekly
• Kochuveli-Guwahati Triweekly
• TCTB-Guwahati Weekly
• Secunderabad-Guwahati Biweekly
• Habibganj-Agartala Weekly

CHENNAI CLUSTER 1

• Tambaram-Madurai Daily
• Chennai-Charlapalli Daily
• Tambaram-TCTB Daily
• Chennai-Coimbatore Daily
• Tirunelveli-Tambaram Daily
• Tambaram-Tiruchchirappalli Daily
• Chennai-Bhagat Ki Kothi Weekly
• Kanniyakumari-Tambaram Daily

SECUNDERABAD CLUSTER 1

• Charlapalli-Srikakulam Daily
• Lingampalli-Tirupati Daily
• Guntur-Lingampalli Daily
• Varanasi-Charlapalli Weekly
• Charlapalli-Panvel Weekly
• Vijaywada-Visakhapatnam Triweekly
• Visakhapatnam-Tirupati Triweekly
• Shalimar-Charlapalli Daily

HOWRAH CLUSTER 1

• Tatanagar-Shalimar Daily
• Shalimar-Pune Weekly
• Howrah-Chennai Daily
• Shalimar-TCTB Daily
• Hatia-TCTB Weekly
• Puri-Shalimar Triweekly
• New Jalpaiguri-Howrah Weekly
• Howrah-Anand Vihar Daily
• Howrah-Patna Daily
• Howrah-Malda Town Daily
• Sealdah-Guwahati Biweekly
• Anand Vihar-Chhapra Biweekly

Private train operators are encouraged to use the latest technologies and top quality features in the trains. From passenger safety to modern GPS enabled announcement system, Indian Railways has made a list of the new technologies such as:

• Modern design bogies, stainless steel exteriors or aluminum exteriors and brake systems. Improved safety features with fire retardant interiors, modern couplers with anti-climbing features must be there.
• Folding steps for easy access to physically challenged passengers.
• GPS-enabled passenger announcement system for onboard announcements for station arrivals, time to next station or destination, safety announcements should be included as well.
• Optimum passenger comfort through the use of bogies with superior ride index, efficient air conditioning with automatic temperature and humidity control, superior interiors and toilets.