Govt has no plans to privatise Indian Railways: Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi: Union Railway Minister has said the government has no plans to privatise the Indian Railways and stressed that there is a need for the sector to absorb the latest technologies to meet customer aspirations, especially in terms of safety and comfort.
He noted that the technology should be homegrown like the contribution of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to Vande Bharat Express, and contribute to the sector's growth, he said, while virtually inaugurating the 20th all India conference of the Bharatiya Railway Mazdoor Sangh (BRMS) at Rail mandapam, Perambur, from Delhi, PTI reported.
The Vande Bharat Express was designed and manufactured by ICF at Perambur under the Centre's Make in India initiative.
"The opposition parties are repeatedly alleging a move to privatise the railways. I wish to clearly state that the railways is a big complex organisation...there's no policy to privatise the railways. No such plans, whatsoever," the minister said, according to PTI.
"There's no affinity for privatisation of railways but technology should be imbued," Vaishnaw was further quoted as saying in the report.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already iterated that the Central government has no intention to privatise the railways.
Railways need to be strengthened with the latest technology to meet the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in order to make progress.
"This should meet the aspirations of the nation, the youth, emerging middle class and also 8 crore passengers. The contribution should be like ICF's role in designing and making Vande Bharat express," he pointed out.
He slammed the UPA regime for not doing enough in the recruitment front and said that the Narendra Modi-led government filled up 3.5 lakh vacancies in the railways and took steps to recruit people for 1.40 lakh posts.
"I am reviewing the recruiting process once in 15 days to make sure that it doesn't get stuck anywhere," Vaishnaw said.
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