Indian Railways and Public Private Partnership

Public-Private Partnership in Indian Railways Karan Kumar

CCS Working Paper no. 182 Summer Research Internship Programme 2007-08 Centre for Civil Society www.ccs.in

Centre for Civil Society

Contents

1. Executive Summary…………………………………………...3 2. Introduction……………………………………………………..4 3. Indian Railways………………………………………………...5 4. Public Private Partnership……………………………………8 5. Public Private Partnership in Indian Railways………….9 6. Government Policy on PPP in IR……………………………15 7. Criteria to evaluate PPP in IR……………………………….17 8. Summary…………………………………………………………18 10. Endnotes………………………………………………………….19 11. Exhibits……………………………………………………………21

2

Executive Summary

Choosing a project was not an easy task considering the fact that none of the ones mentioned in the project list given to us caught my attention. I have always been fascinated by Railways-not only as a mode of transportation but also as a uniting factor in our country of such great diversities. Hence, I was keen on doing a project relating to Indian Railways. Also, currently, Public-Private Partnership occupies the page-3 status in the news about Indian Railways. Thus, ‘PPP in Indian Railways’ became the preferred topic.

The paper starts with an introduction on Indian Railways. It reveals certain startling facts about IR and, then, proceeds with an explanation on Public Private Partnership model. After giving an elaborate detail on the fundamental knowledge on IR and PPP, PPP in IR is introduced. There are a lot of non-critical activities which are either being run or being planned to be run through the PPP Model. This part of the report gives a detailed explanation of those and also reveals the weak appetite of the IR in inviting private sector participation in Indian Railways.

After this, the focus of the paper shifts towards a critical analysis of the Government’s policy on PPP in IR. Here, the lackadaisical attitude of the IR in bringing in much needed improvement in efficiency of services rendered...