Ever since India’s 1st private train: Tejas Express, has been flagged off, a new era of Railways has dawned in India, wherein non Indian Railways trains, run by private players will become the norm.
Already more than 50 routes have been finalised for the private train routes, and now, some interesting details are emerging regarding the companies which can soon run such private trains.
Note here, that Tejas Express, which is India’s 1st private train, is being managed and run by IRCTC, which is a subsidiary of Indian Railways focussing on catering, ticketing and sale of water bottles.
IRCTC has just launched their IPO, which has broken several records in stock market.
MakeMyTrip, SpiceJet, Indigo Will Run Private Trains
Some of the biggest names in the travel industry have now come out, and pitching for their participating in running private trains.
MakeMyTrip, India’s biggest online ticketing platform has shown keen interest in jumping into this niche, which will perfectly compliment their existing business model.
Spicejet and Indigo, which are currently India’s #2 and #1 airline carrrier in India, have also shown interesting in running private trains.
More than 150 private trains will be running on the tracks of Indian Railways very soon, and more and more private players need to be involved.
Indian Railways Considering Proposals
As per the reports coming in, Indian Railways has confirmed that they have received the proposals from MakeMyTrip, Spicejet and Indigo airlines, and they are considering the proposals.
However, another set of reports indicate that now as the first non Indian Railways trains is successfully running (Tejas Express, between Lucknow and Delhi), they will now create a set of terms and conditions for private players.
After that, there will be an open bidding for allocating the routes to the private companies, and then the main operators will be finalised.
How Can Private Firms Make Money Via Indian Railways?
Indian Railways has already announced that private companies running private trains will be able to set their own fares.
And this changes everything.
For some of the busiest routes on which private trains would be allowed are: Delhi – Mumbai, Delhi – Chennai, Delhi Howrah, which are extremely busy, and critical routes.
Private players, if they assure better & timely services, can charge a premium from passengers, and recover their costs.
More details are awaited.
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