Indian railways on the slippery tracks
Earlier this month, the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) issued a discussion paper on Private Participation in Passenger Trains ( see here ). The discussion paper proposes engagement of private players for running passenger trains on 100 train routes. The routes proposed include some of the most popular routes from Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The objectives of the proposal to engage private operators for running passenger train are stated as follows: Introduction of modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance Significantly Reduce Transit Time World Class Service – Improved User Experience Capacity Augmentation Reduce Supply Demand Deficit I would not like to delve into the mundane issue of whether this proposal is a tacit admission by the Indian Railway that it is not possible for it to provide global standard services in the present format. I want to raise a rather meaningful and certainly...