Railway employees union threaten strike against 'move' to

Alleging a move was on to privatise the Chennai-Madurai Tejas Express, a railway employees union on Wednesday threatened a nation-wide strike if the Centre went ahead with the 'proposal' to handover operation of profitable trains.

Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) General Secretary Kannaiah also claimed there was a proposal to handover the Chennai-Coimbatore Cheran Express to private players.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a meeting of the SRMU, he said ticket prices would go up as the private players will do away with concessions.

He referred to reports about Railways identifying the New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express for privatisation and claimed there was also a proposal to handover Chennai-Madurai Tejas Express to private players.

"If the Government goes ahead with its plans to privatise the running of the profit making trains, a nation-wide protest will be held," he said.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had on July 10 informed the Lok Sabha there was no proposal to privatise the railways and no specific passenger train had been identified to be run by private players so far.

The railway ministry in its 100-day plan has proposed it will offer two trains to IRCTC, to operate on haulage concept, with ticketing, onboard services to be provided by them.