Indian Economy News

Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express ready to be first train to be run by private operators

  • IBEF
  • July 10, 2019

The Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express is all set to become the first train to be operated by private players. This comes ahead of the 100-day agenda of handling over operations to the private sector.

The Railway Board is considering on a second such route, which too would be in the 500-km distance range.

The Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express was introduced in 2016 but was re-introduced in the new timetable released lately. This is one of the most awaited train on the route and is currently parked at Annandnagar railway station in Uttar Pradesh and will be handed over to private players after an open bidding process for operationalisation.

Though, the supervision of the trains will be moved to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which will compensate for it, including their lease charges, to the financing arm, IRFC.

The Delhi-Lucknow route is currently served by 53 trains but does not have a Rajdhani. The Swarn Shatabdi has the highest demand on this route and takes around 6:30 hours.

 

These two trains will be running on a trial for next 100-days, with an idea to identify routes which have low crowding and connect important tourists’ spots. The second train too will be identified soon after the run of first one.

The suggestion of the Railway Board in its 100-day plan was to offer two trains to operators who would be willing to be part of the bidding process for rights to run private passenger day/overnight train sets connecting important cities. The Railways also said that it would float a Request for Proposal (RFP) and a Request for Quote (RFQ) in the next 100 days.

The proposal, though, has come under brutal disapproval from the railway unions, who have threatened large scale protests over the issue.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

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