PIB News Update: Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal has informed that Ministry of Railways have constituted a Group of Secretaries (GoS) with a term of one year inter-alia to permit private passenger train operators to operate trains with world class technology over Indian Railways Network. The GoS has held three meetings, so far. In regard to Goods trains, various wagon investment schemes, i.e. Automobile Freight Train Operators (AFTO) Scheme, Liberalized Wagon Investment Scheme(LWIS), Special Freight Train Operator Scheme (SFTO) and General purpose Wagon Investment Scheme (GPWIS) have been introduced for participation of private entities in wagon procurement. However, operation of these goods trains remains with Indian Railways.
Participation of private sector has been allowed in construction and maintenance of Railway lines under various models of Participative Policy such as Non Govt. Railway, Joint Venture, Built Operate & Transfer, Customer Funding and Annuity. In all these schemes, responsibility of trains operation and safety certification rests with Indian Railways. However, outsourcing of certain facilities like cleaning, pay and use toilets, retiring rooms, parking, etc. is done on need based manner to improve efficiency. In case of any deficiency, the mechanism of redressal as per the contract is invoked.