Railway Unions Protest Against India’s First Private Train – Tejas Express
Image For representational use only.Image Courtesy : Kalinga TV
New Delhi: Railway unions on Friday protested against the IRCTC's Tejas Express, the country's first "private" train, flagged off by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.
The All India Railway Men's Federation (AIRF) said it was observing the day as 'virodh diwas' (protest day) across the network against the first "private" train Tejas and the railway board's decision to give another 150 trains to the private sector.
Terming the launch of the Tejas Express on Friday as a "black day", members of the railway unions carrying banners and shouting slogans gathered in front of the divisional railway manager's office here.
The new IRCTC Tejas Express train, which will run between Lucknow and New Delhi, cuts the time travelled between the two cities to six hours 15 minutes from the six hours 40 minutes taken by the Swarna Shatabdi, currently the fastest train on the route.
The “corporate” train was flagged off in Lucknow by Adityanath who pitched it as a “semi-bullet train” on the Agra-Varanasi, run by Indian Railways’ subsidiary, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
The commercial run of the new Tejas Express will start on Saturday.
The Tejas Express will leave Lucknow at 6.10 am and reach New Delhi railway station at 12.25 pm. On its return journey, the train will leave Delhi at 3.35 pm and reach Lucknow at 10.05 pm. The train will have only two halts — Kanpur and Ghaziabad and will run on all days of the week, except Tuesday.
Confirming the government’s push for privatization of Railways, officials said if this experiment of handing over certain operations to IRCTC is successful, the Railways will make way for private operators to run trains in India.
The Railway Board has already asked zonal railways to consider the feasibility of running private trains on 50 key routes, including Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah.
The Tejas Express ticket is priced at Rs 1,280 for AC chair car passengers and Rs 2,450 for executive chair car. However, due to dynamic pricing, the costliest Tejas ticket till now is Rs 4,325.
On the other side, the Swarna Shatabdi Express fares are Rs 970 for chair cars and Rs 1,935 for AC 1A. This train, too, has dynamic pricing.
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