Indian Railways welcomes private investments but Indian Railways will never be privatised: Piyush Goyal
New Delhi: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday cleared the stand of the government on private investment in Indian Railways. Piyush Goyal in Lok Sabha said that “The Indian Railways will never be privatised but private investment should be encouraged for more efficient functioning.”
In a discussion of Demands for grants for Railways – the Railway Minister said that “There has been no death of any passenger due to a rail accident in two years and the railways has been putting the enormous focus on passenger safety.”
On private investments in the Indian Railways – Goyal said that “The country can progress towards high growth and create more employment opportunities only when the public and private sectors work together.”
“Indian Railways will never be privatised. It is a property of every Indian and will remain so,” Goyal added.
Under the leadership of the BJP government – Private Investment in Railways has hiked to Rs 2.15 lakh crore in 2021-22 fiscal, from Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2019-20 fiscal.
“We are focusing on passenger safety. I am happy to say that there has been no passenger death in the past two years. The last death due to a train accident happened in March 2019,” the minister said.
Some experts also believe that private investment in Railways could be the reason to generate employment in the nation. Indian Railways is one of the largest employments providing organizations in the world. Indian Railways had 12.27 lakh employees as of March 2019, making it the world’s eighth-largest employer.
-Vinayak
