Modernisation! This is Modi government's next big move for Indian Railways

Modi government is planning to auction modernised railway stations to private players, Union Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has confirmed. After deciding to privatise 151 passenger trains, the Centre is planning to auction railway stations to private players after modernising the facilities, Piyush Goyal said.

Addressing a webinar organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), the Union railway minister said the bids for privatising the trains were all out and well responded to. "There are plans to modernise the railway stations. Then, those will be auctioned to private players at a later stage," he added. Work on the freight corridor project will have to be speeded up, the Union minister said adding that it got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, Ministry of Railways had issued an important clarification regarding timeline of introduction of private trains. Issuing the statement, Ministry of Railways said, "Kindly refer to the story in some of the publications regarding “Timeline of introduction of Private Trains”, where it's mentioned that "Private Trains project would start in March 2024”. "While a clarification was posted in the media group yesterday i.e. 18th July 2020, the same is being reiterated once again. It may be noted that Private Trains are slated to run from March 2023 only," Ministry of Railways said.

Earlier, Ministry of Railways had confirmed that 151 trains to be run by private operators once the selection process is finished, would be over and above the already existing trains. Ministry of Railways had recently invited Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for private participation for the operation of passenger train services over 109 Origin Destination (OD) pairs of routes through the introduction of 151 modern trains.