Kolkata: Although there was a lot of hype, several companies did not show interest in private trains. Interest has been expressed for only 3 clusters. There is no interest in the Kolkata cluster.
The Indian Ministry of Railways held meetings with 23 companies on private rail projects. The Railway Board held meetings with both domestic and foreign companies. According to the Ministry of Railways, the meeting was actually a pre-application meeting. The Ministry of Railways explained what the private policy was going to be like, as various organizations had said before taking over the private railways. Titagarh Wagon of West Bengal was also present at the meeting. Among the 23 companies that showed interest were foreign companies like Bombardier and Alstom. There were several companies including BHEL, BEML, IRCTC, CAF, Medha, JKB Infrastructure, Bharat Forge, Starlight.
IRCTC runs trains like Tejas. Titagarh Wagon has experience in making various types of railway coaches and at the same time they are bringing very modern metro coaches at the very beginning of the self-reliance project in Pune Metro. As a result, the competition between the organizations that were present at the meeting is fierce. According to the non-government organizations, such meetings are being held frequently to ensure that the central government’s project is not limited to pens. After this meeting, the Ministry of Railways called for tenders. All these private trains will run across a total of 12 clusters across the country. Howrah is one of the clusters. Private trains will run on a total of 6 routes in this cluster. From Howrah to Delhi, which will run every day, will take 18 hours. The train from Howrah to Chennai will run every day, taking 28 hours.
Howrah to Bangalore train will run daily, taking 33 hours. Howrah to Ranchi will run every day, taking 6 hours. Howrah to Puri, will run every day, will take 6 hours, will run every day. Howrah to Pune, two days a week. It will take 28 hours. From Sealdah to Guwahati, 3 days a week. It will take 18 hours. All the private trains will have sophisticated facilities. For example, this train will run at 160 km per hour. Passengers will not feel any kind of shock. No sound will reach the ears of the passengers. Sophisticated braking system. Each coach will have sliding doors. The door will be open from both inside and outside. There is a talk bag inside the room. With the help of which the passengers can talk directly with the driver and guard. All rooms have multiple CCTV cameras, which allow the driver to see everyone. The room will have a digital board, at both ends. The glass of each window will be glazed safety glass, so that the outside light or sunlight will not penetrate.
In December 2020, the policy commission gave clearance to run private trains. Commenting on the meeting, Umesh Chowdhury, CMD, Titagarh Wagon, said, “We have been interested in rail relations for a long time. However, we are not interested in daily train operations, we are interested in various fields including coaching.” According to the Ministry of Railways, it was thought that providing comfortable rail services would be as profitable as in other European countries. IRCTC already runs special trains like Tejas. Debashish Chandra, one of their top officials, said, “Tejas has become a standard mark. As a result, people’s interest in private trains has increased a lot.” However, the center still thinks the project will be a complete success. Trinamool MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, however, said, “In fact, the leaders are filling the party’s coffers by selling all this or by private hands.”
Abir Ghoshal
from https://www.thetimesofbengal.com/2021/08/25/indian-railways-private-trains-no-interest-in-kolkata-cluster-most-companies-not-interested-in-running-private-trains-news18-bangla/
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