Railways' Decision to Privatization meets Strong Opposition | Fusion - WeRIndia

The Railways have invited private players to sell tickets of reserved and unreserved categories. Furthermore, a new dispensation has decided that the cleaning of the 50 major stations will be outsourced and that ‘Gate Mitras’ who are hired by the private agencies will be deployed. These decisions are being met with strong opposition as the employee unions did not find this good. They have stated that these moves are essentially privatizing railways and its operations.

The major amount of resistance from the unions came when the railways have decided to allow private partnership in the establishment and usage of computerized passenger reservations system (PRS). The PRS counters being used now were only allowed to be operated by railway employees and only authorized travel agents were allowed to sell e-tickets.

The new counters would be called Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendras (YTSK). These counters can be used by private agencies too. The railways have stated that their move will be for the best since it helps in the expansion of the facilities for buying tickets thereby helping the passengers. The railways have also stated that they would only allow authorized private agents who have an experience of five years and an office outside of railway station which is equipped with the right technology needed to run YTSK.

Photo by Pranesh Kumar on Unsplash (Free for Commercial Use)

Image Reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/Yk8LPreGwaU