Hyderabad: SCR to run private trains on 11 routes

Hyderabad: In a major move towards privatization of Indian Railway, the South-Central Railway (SCR) will run private trains. It may be noted that last year, IRCTC launched its first Tejas Express which runs on Lucknow-Delhi and Mumbai-Ahmedabad routes.

The SCR identified routes to run the trains (See box) on the surge pricing model. The SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya said that the private players would be charged for operational cost.

The crew too would be provided by Railways, add-on facilities such as Wi-Fi, cleanliness and other aspects would be the responsibility of the private players. Senior officials said that the idea of introducing private trains is to provide world class services to passengers. Officials said that the trains would cater long distance and overnight travel. SCR will initiate open tendering soon.