No plan to privatise Indian Railways, asserts Ashwini Vaishnaw

There is no plan to privatise the Indian Railways, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday, emphasising that this assurance was made by his predecessor too.

Replying to the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the working of his Ministry, he said that it is a complex organisation with a social obligation and the biggest challenge was capital investment in this sector – which was sped up after 2017 when the Rail Budget was merged with the Union Budget.

Vaishnaw also said that till 2014, the capital investment was only Rs 45,000 crore which was made double in 2017 and as of now, the a total of Rs 2,45,800 crore have been infused.