The Indian Railways has received 120 applications from 15 firms for 12 clusters in response to the request for qualification (RfQ) for PPP in passenger train operations.
The Ministry of Railways had invited RfQ for private participation in the operation of passenger train services over 12 clusters comprising 140 origin destination pair of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains to improve high-quality trains operated on the network.
This is the first major initiative of attracting private entity investment for running passenger trains over the Indian Railway Network.
The project is expected to entail private sector investment of around Rs 30,000 crore.
The Indian Railways has received nine RfQs for Mumbai 1 cluster, 12 for Mumbai 2 cluster, 10 for Delhi 1 cluster, 12 for Delhi 2 cluster, nine each for Chandigarh, Howrah, Chennai and Patna, 10 each for Prayagraj, Secunderabad, Jaipur, and 11 for Bengaluru.
The firms which have applied include Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, Sainath Sales and Services, IRB Infrastructure Developers, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, GMR Highways, Welspun Enterprises, Gateway Rail Freight, Cube Highways and Infrastructure III, Malempati Power, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, RK Associates and Hoteliers, PNC Infratech, Arvind Aviation and BHEL.
The private entities for undertaking the project will be selected through a transparent two-stage competitive bidding process comprising RfQ and request for proposal (RfP).
The RfQs for 12 clusters were published on 1 July 2020. The Ministry of Railways will expeditiously complete the evaluation of applications, and RfP documents will be made available to the qualified applicants by November 2020. It has targeted to award all the clusters by February 2021.