Chennai: Railway union protests privatisation move, likely to step up agitation

CHENNAI: The Indian Railways idea of privatising aspects of the suburban railway system and also using them as a canvas for outdoor advertising, does not appear to go well with the unions here. The SMRU leaders who met here are likely to chalk out an agitation plan.

According to sources at the SRMU the Centre should withdraw its plan to privatise select train services, track maintenance, on board services and corporatisation of railway depots and factories. The successive Union governments have been threatening with their plans of massive privatisation of railways that serves the people.

A senior leader pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said that Indian Railways belonged to the people of the country and that it would not be privatised but remain as a government entity. However, under its 100-day plan of the newly-formed Government, the Centre has laid out various forms of privatisation,” he added.

Part privatisation of suburban rail system in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad is also being mulled.

Intercity routes identified for privatisation include Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Aurangabad, Mumbai-Madgaon, Delhi-Chandigarh/Amritsar, Delhi-Jaipur, Howrah-Puri, Howrah-Tatanagar, Howrah-Patna, Secunderabad-Vijaywada, Chennai-Bengaluru, Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Madurai and Ernakulam-Thiruvananthapuram.