Let private players run and maintain passenger trains, panel suggests

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is on the threshold of dramatic changes. A government panel, mandated to suggest ways to overhaul the railways, has recommended the entry of private players to run passenger trains. While there was talk of private sector role in freight, this is the first time a move is being made to bring it in the running of passenger trains.

Along with this, the panel headed by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy, has recommened the entry of private companies in operation and maintenance of railways, and has pitched for attracting talent from outside for a radical revamp of the lumbering state-owned behemoth.

The Debroy panel, set up by the Narendra Modi government, has prepared a detailed report (a copy of which is with TOI) which will be presented to the government on Friday. The government is expected to act on the recommendations in the months ahead as railways is regarded as a priority sector for the Modi administration.

The panel has also suggested the scrapping of a separate railway budget — something for which many economists have argued in the past — as the railways was just another public sector company. The railway budget is seen as British colonial legacy which has lingered on for decades.