WR unions protest plans to have private firms run trains

Mumbai: Railway staff affiliated to the Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh on Friday staged a protest in Mumbai Central against a ministry plan to let private firms operate long-distance trains on several routes.

The WRMS protest meeting was held outside the office complex of WR’s Mumbai divisional railway manager (DRM) and was led by the trade union’s general secretary JS Mahurkar.

The protest was supported by other outfits like the Shiv Sena’s Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti, union functionaries said.

The protest rally was part of the ongoing ‘Rail Bachao Sangoshti’ (Save Railway Seminar), organised between January 8-10 as a counter to the Railway’s official ‘Parivartan Sangoshti’ held on January 7-8, they said.

Protesters asked the Centre to drop plans to “privatise” train running operations.

The NITI Aayog recently uploaded a proposal on its website under which 150 trains on 100 routes may be run by private operators, envisaging an investment of Rs 22,500 crore.

Railway PSU IRCTC is running one such train between Delhi-Lucknow and plans to start a second on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route on January 17.