After IRCTC, SpiceJet and IndiGo to run Indian Railways trains; MakeMyTrip also in line

After the IRCTC got the Tejas Express operations in the Delhi-Lucknow route, it seems that the Indian Railways is fast running towards privatisation. Now, two aviation companies SpiceJet and IndiGo are all set to start train operations. Apart from this, some of the e-commerce giants in the hospitality industry, especially MakeMyTrip have also shown interest for the same. 

According to the Zee Business TV sources in the Ministry of Railways, some private airline companies of big repute have shown interest in train operations. Asked about the name of the aviation companies the source further revealed that SpiceJet and IndiGo are the two private airline companies who have shown interest in train operations. The source said that the Indian Railways has received inquiry in regard to Indian Railways privatisation.

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In fact, some travel portals have also shown interest in railway operations. On the condition of anonymity, a senior Indian Railways officer posted at the Ministry of Railways said that some travel portals of big repute want to join Indian Railways as private players. He only named MakeMyTrip though. 

Receiving such a rave response from the private players, the Indian Railways is at Cloud-9. They have now started to find out the possible routes where private firms operated trains can be introduced. The railway official said that the Indian Railways has zeroed on 150 train routes for private operators. In long route trains, there are 9 such train routes, which include Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Howrah which can be operated by private players in the near future.

The Indian Railways is doing a trial of eight months, in which it gave IRCTC to run Tejas Express on Lucknow-Delhi route. The IRCTC began its train operations on 4th October successfully. After 8-10 months, private players would be asked to bid for their preferred train route for operations.