Railways will benefit immensely in the coming 5-6 years: Vaishnav

The Minister expressed confidence that the Railways will have a “brilliant” business proposition in the years to come.

“With the vision of the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), the changes that are taking place and what is expected to happen… Railways will be highly profitable in the coming 5-6 years,” Vaishnav said. Speaking at the ‘Times Now Summit 2021’.

He said that the ecosystem of Railways will expand and the customer experience will also change.

On the financial position of the Indian Railways, the minister said that its balance sheet largely depends on the cargo it handles.

“The goods we handle have to change completely. We should focus on getting retail goods which is for small industries, for small businesses, for tribals living in Ranchi who want to say ‘ragi’ Want to send someone sitting. In Delhi,” he said.

Addressing that segment of cargo will significantly advance the economics of the Railways, he added.

“And, I am sure that with the inventions, the innovations that we are making, in fact today, I am going from here to the New Delhi Railway Station, where we have developed for such medium, small-scale industries, Small businesses … that’s the box we’ll see today and hopefully deploy soon.”

In the last seven years, Railways has seen remarkable improvement in benchmarks like punctuality, cleanliness and good services to the passengers.

“From here, now, the railways has to move towards an entirely new generation of rolling stock, which are the coaches that we use. It must have a completely new way of working, in which it is able to meet the needs of products and logistics. Efficiently addresses small farmers and industries,” Vaishnav said.

Railways will have to change and be more open from the point of view of passengers, cargo, technology and mindset.

The Indian Railways which enjoyed around 80% market share in logistics in the 1950s has come down to 27-28%, and the challenge now is to rise above those levels. Railways wants to compete for the bulk of the cargo.

“Let us say that countries like Germany have the best cost of logistics, which is 9% of the GDP. India has 14%… So, we can increase it from 14% to 10-11%. How can we bring it, it is possible only when Railways gets more cargo share.”

On how private sector participation in Railways would be increased, the Minister said that substantial private sector interactions with Railways already exist in the form of partners, manufacturers, service providers and construction contractor ecosystem.

“How can we scale it up? How can we make it more structured? That’s what we need to work on. The private sector looks for a structure where the risk allocation is appropriate.”

“It is not one-sided, payment terms are fair, dispute resolution is properly defined, the contractual structure and policy is well structured. So, that is what we need to do,” he said.

Noting that the country has shifted to a model where the private and public sectors have worked as partners for the construction of highways, he said, “Such things need to come to the railways now”. .

“So, we are working on that and hopefully, very soon, we should come up with the first BOT (build-operate-transfer) project to lay new railway lines. And, once it is successful, I Pretty sure it will be successful..Looking at the industry response we have got so far.

“I think we will be able to build many more kilometers of railways using that model,” he said, describing it as a more appropriate way of how the private sector would interact with the railways.

Vaishnav said that the Prime Minister has a vision to connect all parts of the country with modern world class trains.

“We have started manufacturing them, it is progressing well. We will get the first prototype by April. We will start serial production in September-October.

“Then, every month, 5-6 new trains will come,” he said, adding that the focus will be on transforming the customer experience and motivating more people to travel by trains.

On the importance of Shri Ramayana Yatra Train, the Minister said that the concept of ‘Bharat Gaurav Trains’ is to provide an authentic way for people to experience the culture, heritage, diversity of India and it would be a “commercial sense” to run such trains. ” is also.

“It will have Guru Kripa train after Ramayana, safaris, Dakshin Bharat Darshan… It will showcase and give expression to our culture and heritage,” he promised.

In the Bharat Gaurav Trains initiative, the government interacted with around 1,000 stakeholders.

“The whole concept will be developed by the private sector. Hence, there is a need for creativity, there is a need for independence, policy certainty, that is what we have facilitated. Now, it is open to all of you, all friends, the kind of train you want. Want to drive it, without competition,” he said.