In what could be seen as the first step towards privatisation of some sectors of Indian Railways, the Ministry of Railways has decided to “outsource” over 1,000 of its goods sheds across the country to private parties. The private parties can develop the space and share it with the Railways leading to augmentation of the commercial aspects of the national transporter.
While it has also constituted a committee to frame a Goods Shed policy as per PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode, the Railways has decided to handover the huge Ghaziabad shed area to a private party on an experiment basis for six months. This decision comes a month after Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that “not a single bit of the railway properties would be privatised”.
Railway officials said that for over decades the good sheds have been under-used and misused and their condition is not good.
“Operating it through private parties would make it more professional. In the policy, the partner will have to develop the space with fully new infrastructure, modern amenities like waiting rooms for users, operators and good secured godown areas. They will be on BOT model and the users will have to pay a little more to get world class service. There are a total of 1,005 Good Sheds across major railway station of the country,” said a senior railway official.
Sources said a dedicated committee of Executive Director (ED)-level officers from Railway Board and Zones has already been constituted to frame a policy and execute within six months. “It will only add revenues and in no way this related to passenger services. No one will be burdened and a good service would come at a very minimal cost,” added the official.
Goods sheds area are railways building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed has a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they are built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door.
The door is to move goods to or from road wagons and vans. This is sometimes parallel to the rail track, or on the side opposite the rail track. Inside the shed are platforms and sometimes a small crane facility to allow easier loading and unloading of wagons.