Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express to be first privately operated train

The proposal of the Railway Board in its 100-day plan was to offer two trains to operators who would be willing to be part of the bidding process for rights to run private passenger day/overnight train sets connecting important cities.

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The decision has however received widespread criticism from railways unions across the country.

In a first for Indian Railways, a private player will operate two new trains, including the Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express, PTI reported quoting its sources. The development comes even as the Railways moves ahead with its 100-day agenda released under the newly-formed government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The proposal of the Railway Board in its 100-day plan was to offer two trains to operators who would be willing to be part of the bidding process for rights to run private passenger day/overnight train sets connecting important cities. The decision has, however, elicited widespread criticism from railways unions across the country who have threatened large scale protests over the issue.

Although the Indian Railways announced the Tejas Express in 2016, it was introduced in the new time table recently. The IRCTC has been asked to finalise a proposal by July 10 and submit it to the Railway Board.

“These two trains will be given on an experimental basis and we hope that within the next 100 days, we will be able to run at least one of them. The idea was to identify routes which have low congestion and connect important tourists spots. The second main too will be identified soon,” a senior official said.

The train, one of the most-awaited trains on the route, is currently parked at the Anandnagar railway station in Uttar Pradesh and will be handed over to private players after an open bidding process for operationalisation. The Delhi-Lucknow route is currently served by 53 trains but does not have a Rajdhani. The Swarn Shatabdi has the highest demand on this route and takes around 6:30 hours.

First uploaded on: 08-07-2019 at 20:30 IST

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