NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said there is no question of privatising the Railways, asserting that providing affordable service to all is the focus of the national transporter.Vaishnaw said the Railways is working to ensure that people can travel up to 1,000 kilometres in comfort in less than Rs 400. He said 12,500 general-class coaches are being manufactured for the convenience of the people.“There is no denying the fact that Railways will undergo a complete makeover in the next five years and trains like Vande Bharat and Namo Bharat, equipped with indigenously developed anti-collision device called ‘Kavach’, will lead this change. It has started now,” he said while addressing the Railway Protection Force Raising Day event in Maharashtra’s Nasik. “There is no question of privatisation of the railways. I urge those spreading such rumours to remember that the Railways and Defence are two backbones of India and must be spared from all kinds of politics,” Vaishnaw said. He added that the era of transformation across the Indian Railways has begun. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ended the era of “politicisation of the Railways,” the minister said. “We have given focus on performance, safety, technology and providing affordable service to all. To meet all these, the Modi government has given a big push to the railway budget, which currently stands at Rs 2.5 lakh crore. We have set a record of laying 31,000 kilometres of new tracks in the last 10 years, which is more than the network of France,” Vaishnaw said.
Source link
