Tejas Express will be first train to run by private players

The Indian Railway announced on Tuesday that the Lucknow-Delhi Tejas express will become the first train to be operated by private players.

New Delhi: The Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express will be the first train to be operated by the private players, informed by the sources, as Railway Ministry is going ahead with it's 100 days Action Plan, despite a strong protest of the Railway Union over this decision.

Under the 100 days Action Plan, it was decided that 2 trains will be handed over to the private players for operations in haulage concepts with ticketing and on board services. Recently, a meeting was chaired by Member Traffic, Railway Board, where the modalities of this decision were discussed, wherein it was being decided that IRCTC would submit a detailed proposal to the Railway Board by 10th of July, 2019.

Introduced in 2016, the new time table of the Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express has been released recently. The Railway Board is also deliberating on a second such route, which would be within the 500-km range.

The proposal of the Railway Board in its 100 days Action Plan was to hand over 2 trains to the private operators for better development of the trains. However, this proposal has come under serious criticism by the Railway Union who have given a threat for large scale protests over this issue. Even the Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed the idea of Public Private Partnership model to railways for better development as well as the manufacturing of rolling stock.