New Delhi : In what is seen as the first steps to pave way for gradual privatisation of the railways, the government is inviting the private companies to run freight trains and modernise and manage the goods sheds.
These companies will run the freight trains from own terminals and use the railway infrastructure, paying a fixed sum to the financially ailing railways. If the experiment is successful, it may be repeated for the passenger train services, a top Railway Ministry official said.
The e-commerce companies will be allotted space at the railway stations to modernise the existing goods sheds and use them as their warehouses. Officials said there is a huge demand from e-commerce companies for space within the cities to set up warehouses to cut the logistic costs and the railways have enough space at the stations that can be leased out on annual basis.
