Indian Railways Board Chairman: Mumbai will get a host of trains

Indian Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav

There is no vigilance enquiry against the manufacture of Vande Express Train 18 and what has been ongoing are preventive vigilance checks and that there are no major violations found so far, Indian Railways Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said on Tuesday.

Yadav, who was in Mumbai for the 64th National Railway awards function, told mid-day that Mumbai will get a host of trains of all kinds, including air-conditioned local trains, Mainline local trains. "The manufacturing processes have been set in motion and that overall Indian railway had set an ambitious target of taking a "quantum jump" in rail operations," he said.

Also read: Stone chunks hit Vande Bharat Express; driver's screen, some windows damaged

He said the second Vande Bharat Train 18 Express will be run between New Delhi and Katra. Speaking on privatisation, Yadav said that the process of privatisation of any kind had not been set up in Indian Railways.

"The aim is to improve the quality of services. Hence one train will be selected and handed over to the IRCTC as a pilot project. The train operations, maintenance etc will remain with the railways. It is only the passenger service aspect, entertainment etc that will be handed over to private teams. However, this too will be decided after the consultant's final report is in. What is being done as a pilot project now is to assess what will actually happen when such a thing is done so that a report is prepared. Before actually kicking this off, we will be further consulting all our stakeholders, including rail unions, and then move ahead," he said. The pilot project involves handing over one Delhi-Lucknow train service.

Also read: Vande Bharat Express begins first commercial run

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