Railways trusts competition; rules out fare regulator for private trains

Railway board chairman VK Yadav had earlier stated that the ministry is considering setting up a regulatory authority in the future

The Railways has ruled out the possibility of a fare regulator for private trains and said that competitive tension prevalent in the Indian transport scenario should address the risk of prohibitive pricing.

A set of documents made public by the Railways said the project of bringing in 150 trains to be run by private operators does not have provisions for a fare regulator and stated that any form of economic regulation may have an impact on project revenues.

The PTO (private train operators) would be operating in a competitive environment and would need necessary autonomy. Indian transportation landscape is quite