With the initiation of the talks for Indian Railways privatization, on Friday itsaid that certain job profiles of its employees might change in the coming days but asserted that there will be no job losses.
What Does The Railway Say?
The news came a day after the national transporter issued a letter, praying its general managers to cut 50% vacancies and further freeze the creation of new posts.
The decision of the Railways to bring in private entities to run 151 passenger trains will not result in any job losses but will increase employment opportunities, bring in new technology and also enable the national transporter to provide trains on demand said VK Yadav, the Chairperson of Railway Board on Wednesday.
So far, the move of privatising 151 trains on 109 routes by the Railways has been criticised by opposition parties saying that the poor people’s lifeline was being taken away.
While giving more information on the subject, Yadav said that only 5% of the trains are being proposed for privatization while 95% will be run by the railways on the fare structure fixed by the national transporter.
He added, “The railways at present operates over 2,800 mail/express trains in its network and the same will continue to be operated by the national transporter and the number will be increased as per demand,” he said.
Further Yadav said, “Keeping in mind the poor, the railways itself will fix the tariffs for these trains. The move will improve the availability of transportation services to the poor. By 2030, we will have 13 billion passengers. So as far as jobs are concerned, they will only increase in the Railways,”.
He also said the decision was taken after keeping in mind the gap between the demand and supply of tickets. More than 50 million passengers were waitlisted for train travel in the previous financial year, Yadav said, indicating the existing gap which is expected to widen in the coming years.
The fares that private train operators decide will weigh in factors, including airfares that come in the same segment and also AC bus fares, and the charges will be fixed after comparing them, Yadav said.
Advantages Of Indian Railways Privatization
While talking about the employment opportunities, Yadav said, “We will introduce new trains, we will generate more employment and let there be no doubt that private operations will not get any preferential treatment. We have a protocol in place and that will be followed,”.
In future, the Railways is expecting a total haulage charges of around Rs 3,000 crore per annum from operation of these 151 trains.
According to him, the investment in this project will enable railways to spend its existing resources for accelerated development of railway infrastructure in the North Eastern region, other socially and economically backward regions.
Also this will help in upgrading its existing infrastructure for running more trains and at higher speeds in future.
Further he added, “Right now we are making a loss in the passenger segment operation and basically we cross-subsidise with the freight segment. In this particular project, what we have devised is that railways is not going to lose anything and ultimately the minimum cost which the private operator is going to pay will be able to meet the expenditure of the railways and whatever revenue we get over and above will be profit for the Railways,”.
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