COMING, PRIVATISATION OF RAILWAY PASSENGER SEGMENT
Dated
30 th October 2013
The Railways on Tuesday set the ball rolling for
privatising its passenger segment on its existing infrastructure with the
launch of theHigh Speed Rail Corporation (HSRC).
Railway
Minister Mallikarjun Kharge launched the HSRC as a fully-owned subsidiary
of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, which his predecessor Nitish Kumar had set up
with the objective of raising extra budgetary resources — from the
market and private investors.Mr. Kharge, however, issued a word of caution
against adopting new technology.
NO
TECHNOLOGY FOR GRATIS
“You
should not buy horses merely because horse shoes are freely available,”
was Mr. Kharge’s caution. He stressed how technology could be made
available for even free. “At times they tell us how cheap it is. The question
is whether it suits us or not, not whether it is cheap or free.” He launched
the corporation at an “International Conference on HighSpeed Rail Travel — Low
Cost Solutions.”
Mr.
Kharge, however, underlined the need for high speed rail while focusing on
providing a mass mode of safe, reliable and affordable transport. Railway
Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said the Corporation, as the implementing
agency, would contribute in the joint venture to be formed under the
Public Private Partnership mode. The other stakeholders could be the State
governments and private investors, explained corporation chairman Satish
Agnihotri.
SEVEN
ROUTES
The
Railways have identified seven routes — all commercially viable — on which
the mini high speed trains with a speed of 160 km per hour to 200km per hour
would be operated under the PPP mode. Officials maintained a stoic silence when
asked if the railways were giving away the most viable routes to the
private sector.Some of the routes identified are Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Amritsar-Ludhiana-Chandigarh-Delhi,
Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore-Chennai.
The first project to be implemented under the scheme will be the
Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.
No comments:
Post a Comment