Indian Railways: Modi govt to allow private players to set their own fares

The Narendra Modi government will allow private companies to fix passenger fares after they start operating train services in India, reported Bloomberg.

"Private players have been given the freedom to fix fares in their own way.” VK Yadav, chairman of Railway Board, said.

"Air-conditioned buses and planes also operate on those routes, and they have to keep that in mind before setting fares," he further added.

Alstom SA, Bombardier Inc, GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Adani Enterprises Ltd are some of the companies whicht have expressed interest in these projects, Yadav said.

Modi government asked companies to submit their interest to run passenger trains over 109 origin-destination routes via 151 trains in July. It has also sought investor interest to modernise railway stations including the railway stations in New Delhi and Mumbai.

However, earlier in March, before the lockdown was imposed, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said in Rajya Sabha that the union government had no plans to privatise the Railways now or in future as it is the property of the people.

Goyal was responding to the discussion on the working of the Railways Ministry which went for two days. Replying to concerns raised by MPs about the potential sale of the Railways, Goyal had said there was no such proposal. However, there would be public-private partnerships.