Old proposal, but new zeal

RK Rao
Former Railway Board Member-Mechanical

The move to privatise train operations and railway stations is not new. In the first two decades after Independence, the monolith did everything on its own, as there were limited resources outside the government domain and very little competition from other modes of transportation. But as time changed, the Railways went on to hand over several services like hotels, catering and vending on platforms to private entities between 1960s and 1990s.

After liberalisation, the business scenario changed manifold and big corporations came up in the private sector, with resources and required capabilities. So there is nothing wrong in initiatives to privatise a few more activities like running of trains and managing railway stations.

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The aviation sector gives us a perfect model to adopt, as airports are managed by private entities and airplanes are operated by private companies. If that is successful, why can’t the Railways do the same?

However, core activities like signalling, track maintenance, other technical support ensuring safety, functions of loco drivers and guards should always remain with the Railways. Secondly, the officials should move in this direction very diligently and impeccably so that no untoward controversy erupts.

Both the wage and pension bills eat up a lot of resources. If the move gets ticking, it will ease a lot of burden and the Railways would be able to efficiently concentrate on its core activities. It requires limiting its role to the core activities to optimise efficiency both in terms of passenger amenities and also finances.