Comments on: Railways’ revival

By: Kamal Gupta

Kamal Gupta — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:05:28 +0000

India does not have PPP for passenger services, but it does have for freight. Good to see that PR is trying out PPP for passenger services, but then PR starts from a base of nearly zero. It should explore tie-ups for freight, bulk- and container- freight stations, and multi-modal cargo (carrying trucks on trunk part on board special wagons, with last mile freight to be carried by trucks on roads).

Serious foreign investment is need for tracks upgradation and buying of locomotives, but that needs political stability and internal security.

By: Fuzail Z. Ahmad

Fuzail Z. Ahmad — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:48:21 +0000

All over the world, Railways in the public sector are doing poorly and ours is not an exception. Railways compete with other modes of transportation most of which, if not all, are in the private sector. Pak Railways has done well with privatizing some passenger trains and only this method is self sustainable. Why not some goods trains also? If managed efficiently by the private sector, other good transportation modes will not be able to compete, driving many trucking companies out of business. Governments employ bureaucratic decision making process, in which the objective is to protect one’s back side, rather than take initiatives. Killing other people’s initiatives is also a tactic used by government officials.

By: Prashant

Prashant — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:16:12 +0000

Factually wrong..India does not have private participation in Indian Railways.

By: K G Surendran

K G Surendran — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 06:22:10 +0000

PR could take a page out of the Indian Railways book, though not the most efficient because of political reasons, but the politicians here have realized the importance of such a system as a backbone for the transportation network besides moving millions of passengers, a segment which is severely revenue deficient but is sustained by cross subsidization and people pressure to see improvement in the railways in general.

By: S S LAL

S S LAL — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:25:03 +0000

I am not sure what private public partnership means in Indian context. In India there are no trains which are run on this model except tourist trains such as Palace on wheels and another two or three other trains exclusively for tourist both Indian and foreign.
As far as PR is concerned if this model is best suited then they enhance its operations.
S.S.LAL