Indian Railways might no longer be the lord of the rail in India

Vikram Bhakar, a train operator, is stationed at Duhai village in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Amid its sprawling sugarcane fields, a large rail maintenance depot with state-of-the-art facilities has sprung up. Four semi-high speed train sets, manufactured by Alstom at its factory in Savli, Gujarat, have arrived at the depot’s stabling yard. “I have heard two more are coming this month,” says Bhakar, as he escorts this reporter into a brand-new train in which plastic wrappers have yet to be removed from the seats.