Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reassured that the government has no plans to privatise the Indian Railways and that opposition parties’ related concerns are hypothetical.
He also spoke on the recent “misunderstanding” with regard to recruitment which he said was resolved in a sympathetic manner.
Contents
Recruitment
He said that there is no ban on recruitment and that the process is ongoing for 1.14 lakh vacancies.
There’s a total of 1,40,713 vacancies, including 20,944 SC and 10,930 ST, are presently under recruitment for level-1 to level-7.
During the discussion, several MPs had accused the government of trying to privatise the railways.
The minister responded that it was only a hypothetical point and assured that the “track belongs to railways, stations belong to railways, engines belong to railways, trains belong to railways, signalling systems belong to railways”.
Strategic Sector, No Privatisation
He concluded by saying that there is no talk or plans to privatise railways or freight corridors.
The government has a clear policy on privatisation and the railways is a strategic sector.
Looking at its social obligations and commercial viability, there is no discussion or plan on privatisation of railways.
The national transporter will continue to fulfil social obligations, he said, adding Rs 60,000 crore subsidy is provided on passenger fares.
Bullet Train
He shared developments regarding the proposed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, saying that 99.7% of the land acquisition in Gujarat segment has been completed and 750 pillars have been constructed.
The work is progressing at a rate of 8 km per month, which will be increased to 10 km a month.
Vande Bharat
Efforts are also being made to increase the speed of Vande Bharat trains from the current 160 km an hour to 200 km.
400 such trains will be introduced in the coming years.
The government has the vision to increase the passenger carrying capacity of the Railways to 1,000 crore passengers annually from the 800 crore now, as well as freight loading to about 3,000 million tonnes from about 1,400 million tonnes.
[…] Vande Bharat Passengers: Get Radio Entertainment During… Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open. Trakin Tech Network 6, Vivek Building, Sadashiv Peth, Pune, Maharashtra […]