Rail Bhavan, however, is in no mood to concede power to an autonomous body.
At a meeting held in New Delhi, attended by operators like JM Baxi & Co and Reliance Industries and Railway officials, the operators said they needed a regulator to ensure that the behemoth the Railways did not dominate the business.
The Planning Commission had earlier asked the Railways to present a white paper on how a regulator could be set up but the ministry is yet to respond with any specific proposal. According to a Railways official, the ministry has no proposals for setting up a regulator.
"The container segment accounts for only 3 per cent of our freight mix. So why should we make a special provision for setting up an independent regulator only for this segment when it accounts for so little in terms of revenue?" the official said.
Another official sought to make a distinction between the Railways and other ministries like telecom that have set up regulators.
"The Railways is the only ministry which presents a Budget in Parliament and almost every decision of the ministry is questioned and debated in the House. Setting up a regulator in the railway sector therefore will not be quite as simple as it is for other sectors," he said, indicating that a regulator might end up transgressing on the powers of Parliament.
Countries such as the United Kingdom have specialised railway regulating agencies that function outside the purview of the organisation that runs the railways.
The Office of the rail regulator is responsible for enforcing competition in the sector and also supervises the running of the rail network.
