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NEW DELHI: Railways won’t fix a ceiling on fares for trains which will be operated by private players. They will get a free hand to determine the fare according to the market condition on the lines of air tickets.

“It will be market driven. Even now we are not fixing the fare of the two trains we have given to IRCTC to run,” railway board chairman V K Yadav said in response to a question from TOI on Wednesday. Last September, when the proposal to open up train operation segment to private players was at a nascent stage, railway officials had said there would be a regulator to decide the maximum ceiling on fares “to prevent a sudden spurt in prices, especially during festive seasons like usually seen with airfares.”

An inter-ministerial panel is finalising the bidding parameters for the first 150 trains that would run on 100 routes. Yadav said the board is hopeful of inviting bids for this ambitious plan next month and the first set of private trains may start plying in the next two years.

In an interaction with reporters on Wednesday, Yadav said the ongoing infrastructure augmentation works including the dedicated freight corridors would create room for railways to run 1,500 to 2,000 more trains over the next five to seven years on its network.

The private operators would design, procure, finance, operate and maintain the trains and the contract period will be 30 years.

Railways can even lease out rakes, if such players place a request, Yadav said. He added that railways has not yet taken any decision on whether the operators would be allowed to import full trains or they will have to comply with the ‘Make in India’ norms, which mandates certain percentage of the components are sourced from India.

“We are discussing all aspects. There are both advantages and disadvantages,” he added.

Yadav also told reporters that railways will soon come out with a notification specifying an “user fee” every passenger will have to pay for using its redeveloped stations on the lines of airports. “This charge will be very small and will be included in the ticket of passengers. These will be applicable only when the development work of a particular station is complete,” the railway board chairman said.

The fee will vary across the newly developed stations depending on their footfall. The railways has invited bids to redevelop Amritsar, Nagpur, Gwalior and Sabarmati railway stations and it will soon float tenders for another 50 stations.

Rail Board to get CEO by month end

The railway board will finally go the corporate way by this month end with the re-designation of its present chief V K Yadav as the chairman-cum-CEO by this month end. The board will also end up having four members from June 30 as a couple of sitting members retire. The Cabinet has approved rationalising the board from a nine-member entity to only five. Yadav said the government is firm on merger of all Group A services and it will work out the merger plan while ensuring that “everybody gets satisfaction”.

