HUBBALLI: South Western Railway (SWR) general manager Ajay Kumar Singh on Monday said that a proposal has been placed before Indian Railways to allow private agencies to run trains. This is part of a 100-day programme of the Modi government.After releasing a new time-table of southern Indian zones here on Monday, he said that the Indian Railways is doing its best with the existing resources and infrastructure. “Let private agencies run trains and offer better services, if they could do them with the existing tariff structure," he said.
When asked about trains running late, he said a majority of the tracks coming under the SWR is single lines and their doubling and electrification works are going on. So delay in train service will be quite common. People have to face this problem for the next 3-4 years until line doubling is done.
The Railway has a target to double 186 km line in the current year.
On Bengaluru suburban train service, Singh said after the proposal was vetted by the Prime Minister's Office, the Railway Board sent it back with some queries. A meeting will be held with the state government and a revised proposal will be sent to the Board by July 15. Saying that physical work has been taken up for Mahbubnagar-Munirabad and Gadag-Wadi new railway lines wherever the land is available, he said he has asked railway officials to hold a meeting with chief secretaries of the state for land acquisition.
If issues are not resolved at the bureaucratic level, the Ministry of Railways will be requested to have discussions with the Chief Minister's office. While asked about the line capacity, Singh made it clear that with the existing capacity, it will be hard to add more trains. But if any pressure comes from elected representatives, they will try to run new trains, he added.