In July 2020, Indian Railways opened the sector to private players for the first time.
India will allow private Railway operators to set passenger fares once they begin running their services, VK Yadav, chairman of India’s Railway Board,
"Private players have been given the freedom to fix fares in their own way," Yadav said, as quoted by Bloomberg.
"Air-conditioned buses and planes also operate on those routes, and they have to keep that in mind before setting fares," Yadav added.
The Railways will also charge "user fees" at stations that are redeveloped and major stations with high footfall. This levy will be included in passengers' ticket fare.
Yadav said the charges will be nominal and will be applicable at 10-15 percent of India's 7,000 railway stations, PTI reported.
"We are going to keep a very small amount for the user charge. We will issue a notification for the user charge for all stations including both those that are getting redeveloped and those that are not," he said, as quoted by the news agency.
In July 2020, Indian Railways opened the sector to private players for the first time.
The Ministry of Railways had invited Request for Qualifications (RFQ) from private entities to operate passenger trains over 109 pairs of routes.
The project requires investment of Rs 30,000 crore from the private sector, the ministry estimated.