Chennai suburban train services that connect Chennai Central with places like Kanchipuram, Gummidipoondi, Tambaram and Tiruttani may be operated by private players soon as the Railway Board under the Ministry of Railways has scheduled a meeting to discuss privatisation of passenger train operations.
The letter for the meeting on September 27 was sent by the Railway Board to all the Principal Chief Operations Managers of Central Railway (Mumbai), Northern Railway (Delhi), North Central Railway (Allahabad), South Eastern Railway (Kolkata), South Central Railway (Secunderabad) and Southern Railway (Chennai) on Monday.
According to the letter, based on proposal under the 100-day plan, private operation of passenger trains has been proposed by the ministry. As per the proposal, private operators are to be identified through a bidding process and the selected operators will have the right to fix and collect fares on the trains they operate based on a concession agreement which will be made between the ministry and the private party.
“..It is necessary to identify the routes and the number of services that can be run. Accordingly, an indicative list is attached…Zonal Railways are required to identify potentially viable and operationally feasible routes for introduction of privately- operated passenger trains,” reads the letter. The Railway Ministry in its 100-day plan had proposed handing over the operations of a couple of trains to the IRCTC. According to this plan, IRCTC will handle all the ticketing and onboard services in these trains. The plan also stated that these trains operated by the IRCTC will be run on routes on the Golden Quadrilateral or between important cities.
As per the attached indicative list, the identified routes include Chennai- Bengaluru, Chennai- Coimbatore, Chennai- Madurai, Delhi- Chennai, Mumbai- Chennai and Howrah- Chennai. Among the suburban services, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad have been proposed to be opened up for private operators to bid and win the operating rights.
However, the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had, in July, rejected the allegations that the government is looking to privatise the railways. He had said that there is no question of privatisation of the railways and that the railways cannot be privatised. But he added that in order to attract investments to increase facilities in railways, the ministry has decided to encourage public-private partnerships and to convert some units into individual commercial entities.