NEW DELHI: With railway looking to pep up its revenue from all possible avenues, Union Budget provided it a window whereby it could invite private players and State government to run pilgrim and tourist trains on revenue sharing basis. The budget listed out that the national transporter will take steps to launch dedicated trains for tourism and pilgrimage. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the working and revenue sharing model will be worked out and private entity, individuals and state governments can approach them for running pilgrim or tourist train or even inclusion of coaches in existing train. Railway is in the process of exploring a proposal to rope in private players to run tourist trains at the Darjeeling Himalayan Rai lway, the UNESCO Heritage site.
The Heritage Directorate at Railway Board had sent a proposal to the non-fare revenue directorate proposing to run tourist trains in PPP (public private partnership) mode at the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR). Railways had tied up with Punjab government last year to run a pilgrim train carrying 1,000 devotees. The journey was sponsored by Punjab government under its ‘Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra’ programme. “There have been many requests coming from private companies and states to allow them to run trains. It can be source of revenue earning and we would now come up with policy whereby all issued related to terms and conditions and revenue sharing will be worked out,” said a ministry official.
Railway is already working with state governments whereby joint ventures (JVs) are being set up so that rail projects as per requirement and preference of the states are constructed. Railway has already signed JVs with nine state and 70 projects have been identified for construction and development. The JV companies of these projects have 51 percent stakes of states and 49 percent stakes of Ministry of Railways.