Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Recommending drastic reforms, a high-level railway restructuring committee, headed by NITI Aayog member and noted economist Bibek Debroy, has suggested allowing private players to run passenger trains.
The panel, set up by the Modi government for the restructuring of Indian Railways, has prepared a detailed report which will be submitted to the government on Friday.
The panel in its report also recommends scrapping of a separate Rail Budget. “Once the changes of the first five years are implemented, including the resolution of the social costs issue, the Railway Budget should be phased out,” a news daily, which has access to the report, reported.
It may be recalled that the Bibek Debroy committee's interim report published in April this year on ways to restructure and modernise the Railways had come in for severe criticism from the both the leading employees' unions, All-India Railwaymen Federation (AIRF) and the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR).
NFIR and AIRF had trashed most of the recommendations, including recommendation for allowing private players in freight and passenger operations, formation of a regulatory authority and revamping the Railway Board by bifurcating it.
With Agency Inputs
