Why Centre May Have Plans To Privatize The Railways

Last updated on March 25th, 2021 at 09:19 am

While Indian farmers are fighting to save their turf from being dealt by a private hand, the railway portfolio isn’t going to go to private players. 

Answering a Lok Sabha query, the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Indian Railway services will never go into the hands of private players. 

Goyal however stressed the need to encourage private investment for more efficient functioning. Trying to bring the perspective back to private investments, he said that if private and public can work together, there will be better growth and job opportunities for everyone in the country. 

The whole skirmish started in Lok Sabha when lakhs of bank employees across the nation went on protesting the privatization of two large public sector banks. State-run banks were on a two day strike from March 16. 

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Since taking office for the second term, Modi has been revamping the railways. In 2019-20 fiscal investment on revamping was Rs. 1.5 lakh crore which went up to Rs. 2.15 lakh crore in 2020-21.

All signs are showing a general betterment and growth in the image of Indian railways.  Goyal has also specified how the government is more focused on passenger safety with the success of no deaths reported for the last two years. 

Last week, railway board chairman Suneet Sharma had informed that as of March 12, railways freight loading for the financial year 2020-21 has surpassed the level achieved in the last fiscal. “This gives us a great boost and proves how the railways have continued to be the driving force of the economy. We have loaded 1145.68MT of goods in 2020-21 as compared to 1145.61MT last year.  This is despite the coronavirus crisis which had pushed us into a deficit of 70MT from April to July,” Sharma told the media.