The Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday that there would be no proposal for privatisation of the Indian Railways. The response of the railways came against the proposal given by one of the national transporters to give two trains to private operators.
Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal, in the letter has responded that, so far, no specific train has been selected that will be operated by the private payers. However, according to the sources the New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express has been selected by the Railways though there has been no official announcement.
Responding to a supplementary, Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi said further studies on the issue are on and trials will be held in the coming days.
Goyal has also confirmed that, as on the 1st of April this year, around 189 new line projects which cover a total of 21,443 km, are in various stages of planning, approval, and execution. The launching of new railway projects is based on the daily increase of passengers and aims to connect various areas that have not been covered by the Indian Railways so far. It is a need-based ongoing process subject to commercial justification, operational requirement, technical feasibility, and resource availability