Corporate to operate Kalka and Shimla, Siliguri and Darjeeling and other hill routes soon

If all goes well, you may soon be boarding an ultra luxury toy train from Siliguri in West Bengal to travel to Darjeeling. Marking the beginning of corporate participation in running railways, the Indian Railways wants to quit non profiting railway routes soon.
Narrow and metre-gauge tracks linking the colonial era hill stations are set to be the first of the 108,000-kilometer rail network to be run privately, a senior railway official told ET.

Presently the railways run trains in Kalka and Shimla, Siliguri and Darjeeling, the Nilgiri mountains with the plains, Neral and Matheran, and the Kangra Valley railways, which are known for its natural scenic beauty but don’t generate much revenue. However many corporate companies including major hospitality companies overseas have shown interest in operating these trains.

"We keep getting queries from private players who want to run their own operations. We want to be completely out of operations from these standalone corridors and branch lines and would only assist private players in running operations," a senior railway official told the ET.
"All these railways are on the international tourism map and Darjeeling Himalayan railways is a Unesco world heritage site. There's a huge opportunity for private sector, and for railways also it will be profitable."


"It will help us cut some flab as well as we lose a lot of money on these lines. Maintenance is also a problem since all of them are heritage lines," the official added. If the experiment meets specified benchmarks for success, these leases could be the future templates for enhanced private participation.

Winning bidders will be offered long-term concession agreements, making the leases more viable. The ministry has worked on both upfront-payment and revenue sharing models for leasing standalone passenger corridors and branch lines.
The private players would have options of flexibility to maintain and own stations on these proposed private lines. They would also be allowed to decide their own fare rates.