Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically denied all speculation about any attempt to privatise Railways and said that the development of Railways was top priority of his Government.
He also said that he wanted to make the big network of Railways and Post Office as tool of overall growth of the nation. He was addressing a function at Diesel locomotive Works (DlW) Stadium on Thursday after flagging off a 4,500 Horse Power (HP) locomotive equipped with several additional facilities. Modi also inaugurated the expansion project worth nearly Rs300 crore.
“Right from my childhood, Indian Railways is like my family and I want to make it clear that there are no proposals to privatise the Railways,” he said, terming all speculation simply as rumours and nothing else. It may be mentioned that even in DlW some protests were seen in recent days when the employees raised voice against the possibilities of moves to make this leading production unit of Indian Railways as a corporation.
The PM said that Railways has a biggest infrastructure and manpower and carry maximum passengers daily in the world and exhorted employees to make it a backbone of economy.