A rail switch is a fascinating mechanism. A pair of rails are linked in such a way that even a high-speed bullet train can change its track without a hitch. In Rail Bhawan, though, a policy shift is not that easy. It comes with many jolts and lurches.
Till July this year, the railway top brass was gearing up to deploy 150 swanky private trains across India. Tenders were floated, a dozen bidders stepped forward and there was a great deal of hope that India’s railroads would soon carry state-of-the-art trains equipped with the latest, globally available technology. That didn’t happen. The tender for rolling out private trains has been shelved due to lukewarm response. The project, though not officially dead, is now slowly slipping into oblivion.
