In A Bid To Enhance Experience, Indian Railways To Rent Out Hill Trains To Private Companies

World's fourth largest railroad network, the praised Indian Railways, is about to open its gates for the private sector.

The loss-making Indian Railways will now allow private players to take over their hill-trains. The leasing out of its standalone passenger corridors and branch lines to private companies for operations and maintenance marks the beginning of corporate participation.

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(Also read: ¡®Pepsi Rajdhani¡¯ & ¡®Coke Shatabdi¡¯, Indian Railways Plans To Brand Trains And Stations)

Narrow and metre-gauge tracks linking the colonial era hill stations are set to be the first of the 108,000-kilometer rail network to be run privately, a senior railway official told ET.

Indian Railways to rent out hill trains to private players.Nice move to popularize our Hill Stations.Step in right direction if done rightly

¡ª Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) January 28, 2017

Loss making #IndianRailways to rent out hill trains to private playershttps://t.co/paaKu2tZ4L

¡ª EconomicTimes (@EconomicTimes) January 28, 2017

Some of these routes have been highly unprofitable, for instance, the ones from Kalka and Shimla, Siliguri and Darjeeling, the Nilgiri mountains with the plains, Neral and Matheran, and the Kangra Valley railways would be among the first ones.

This may include overseas companies as the existing policy on investment in railways allows 100% foreign ownership.

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(Also read: Indian Railways Is Now Eyeing Chef Sanjeev Kapoor To Curate Menu For Train Tejas)

¡°We keep getting queries from private players who want to run their own operations. We want to be completely out of operations from these standalone corridors and branch lines and would only assist private players in running operations,¡± a senior railway official said.

¡°All these railways are on the international tourism map and Darjeeling Himalayan railways is a Unesco world heritage site. There¡¯s a huge opportunity for the private sector, and for railways also it will be profitable.¡±

Loss making Indian Railways 2rent out hill trains to pvt players https://t.co/px1r4J1aX5@sureshpprabhu @SV99999 @ibhagwa_n @IndianRailMedia

¡ª Mumbai Railway Users (@mumbairailusers) January 28, 2017

With a 1.54 million workforce and around 6,800 stations, runs about 7,000 trains every day.

(Also read: Indian Railways To Use LNG Instead Of Diesel For Passenger Trains, Will Cut Consumption By 20%)

The running financial year that will end on March 31, 2017, the losses from the passenger segment of the railroad operations will hit Rs 33,000 crore, about 10% higher than the losses for the previous financial year.

#Reforms on track! Private players to run 108,000-km rail network linking hill #stationshttps://t.co/OOzBzZmTbE

¡ª EconomicTimes (@EconomicTimes) January 28, 2017

Thus, in a bid to reduce operating losses from a venture that also helps the government achieve part of its social objective of subsidising mass transportation, the Indian Railways is using tourism to attract private companies, particularly those from the hospitality and infrastructure industries.

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¡°It will help us cut some flab as well as we lose a lot of money on these lines. Maintenance is also a problem since all of them are heritage lines,¡± the official said.

#ModiMinistry Reforms on track! Private players to run 108,000-km rail network linking hill stations https://t.co/tOBT0qpYIj

¡ª #ModiMinistry (@iVoteForBest) January 27, 2017

(Also read: Prabhu Tweeted 2 Years Performance Report of His Reign With Railways And It Looks Impressive)

And if this works out well for both the parties, this could be a futuristic project with ample of ideas and trains on board. Companies will also have the flexibility to maintain and own stations on these proposed private lines.

They may also be allowed to set different fares on these lines after the approval of the upcoming Rail Development Authority of India, which will be free to recommend fares.