NEW DELHI: The Union Government has clarified that there is no proposal to privatize Indian Railways. This was stated by the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
Goyal, however said, it is estimated that Indian Railways would need capital investment of 50 lakh crore rupees up to the year 2030 for network expansion, capacity augmentation and other modernization works.
He said, Railways has planned to use the Public-Private Partnership model in a few initiatives including induction of modern rakes to run passenger trains on selected routes to provide improved service delivery and bridge the gap in capital funding as well as bring in modern technology.
The Minister said, the work of train operations and safety certification will continue to be with Indian Railways in all such cases.
Goyal also informed that the private investors are required to invest in modern rolling stock and maintenance depots. He clarified that the operation of the existing services of Indian Railways is not going to be affected. He said, as of now, no regular passenger train service running over India Railways is being operated by Private Operators.
