A challenging idea

While privatisation of railway stations, in a pilot project to start with, sounds revolutionary, given that the government has already cleared 100 per cent FDI in the Railways, it may not really be impractical. Exploiting the Railways’ huge land resources has been talked about earlier, but never in a businesslike manner. There are knotty issues on the labour front, though: the Railways have one of the country’s strongest unions, and they are likely to resist any kind of privatisation tooth and nail.

While the plan sounds attractive in terms of the revenue it can bring the cash-strapped railway system, such privatisation also must be done in a way that the 13 lakh-plus employees on its vast rolls aren’t unduly affected. The revenues privatisation brings will help extend connectivity in a nation that can never have enough of public transport. For instance, it is only now, close to 70 years after Independence, that Meghalaya in the Northeast is getting a rail link to the rest of India.

India’s vast spread in every direction means connectivity is still the biggest challenge the nation faces. While the highway network is perhaps best to connect every town, there is no better eco-friendly method than for the Railways to expand from its already large base of 7,000-plus stations and track routes in excess of 65,000 km. As with so much else under the new government, the ideas sound great and the implementation complicated. It will be interesting how quickly this kind of privatisation moves forward.