Tata, Adani, Essel Group Can Run 150 Private Trains In India; Jobs Will Increase, Says Railway Board

Privatization of the Indian Railways has finally materialized, and there are already a few entities who are looking forward to running the trains in India.

Find out which companies will be running the trains in India right here!

Indian Railways Announces Privatization Of Indian Railways 

As per reports, Indian Railways initiated the plans of privatization of the railways on July 1 and the government has also invited requests for qualifications (RFQ) from private entities.  The bid will be to run 151 trains on 109 pairs of routes, with each train having 16 coaches. The estimated investment is about Rs. 30000 crores.

In the first bidding process, there were about 20 companies that showed interest in infrastructure and transportation business. These included Adani Ports, Tata Realty and infrastructure, Essel Group, Bombardier India, and Macquarie group. 

Adani Ports

This company is the owner of one of the largest private railway lines in India, spread over about 300 km and connecting ports and other business hubs for movement of cargo. This is along with the large scale infrastructure projects handled by the company. 

 The company has also worked with the Ministry of Railways and Metro corporations in many states and has also set up its own subsidiary on metro rail projects.

Essel Group

This group has been working with multiple government infrastructure projects for decades and has great capability and bandwidth to bid. 

In 2018 the Essel group won its first railway projects and its infrastructure arm, Essel Infraprojects Ltd., Won the first railway project for Rs 17.06 billion on the Eastern Freight Corridor that connects Howrah and Chennai mainline.

Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd

The subsidiary of Tata Group has also been chosen to be responsible for the Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar Metro project in Pune. The company has also participated to lay the underground stretch in the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System.

Bombardier

This is a German firm and is a strong contender also. It is the first foreign multinational company that has set up a wholly owned railway vehicle manufacturing facility in India, and that too 50 years ago. The company e has also won the contract to supply 210 computer and metro cars for the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System.

Alstom

This is another foreign company, a French infrastructure company that has a wide presence in India and also employs 3600 people. They are also working on the metro projects in major cities such as Chennai Kochi and Lucknow. 

Jobs Will Increase, Not Decrease

With privatisation, comes the fear of losing jobs.

Denying these fears, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav has assured that once private firms start running trains, jobs will actually increase, not decrease.

He said, “Hence, in future, the railway jobs will only go up because we are expanding infrastructure and targeting to meet the demand of all passengers,”

We will keep you updated, as more details come in regarding privatization of trains in India.

Stay tuned!