Railways: 120 applications from 15 firms for pvt train operations

CIOReviewIndia Team | Thursday, 08 October 2020, 04:32 IST

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Railways: 120 applications from 15 firms for pvt train operations

Just days after the Railways invited bids for running 151 passenger trains, 120 applications have been received from 15 firms for 12 clusters, across 109 pairs of routes across the country. The Railway Ministry statement said that the applications were received in response to a request for the qualifications for public-private partnership mode when it comes to passenger train operations. 

"The Railways has received an excellent response. In all, 120 applications have been received for 12 clusters," he said.

The applicants are Sainath Sales and Services Pvt Ltd, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited, IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, Welspun Enterprises Limited, GMR Highways Limited, Cube Highways and Infrastructure III Pvt Ltd, Gateway Rail freight Limited, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited, Malempati Power Private Limited, RK Associates and Hoteliers Pvt Ltd, among others. 

Furthermore, nine RFQs were received for the Mumbai 1 cluster, 12 for Mumbai 2 cluster, 10 for Delhi 1, 12 for Delhi 2, 9 each for Chandigarh, Howrah, Chennai and Patna, 10 for Prayagraj, Secunderabad and Jaipur and 11 for Bengaluru cluster. 

Also, to increase its high-quality trains on the network, the Railways had invited RFQs for private participation in operations on 140 Origin Destination pairs of routes through 151 modern trains. 

The Railways had held two meetings for private train operators, i.e., one on July 21, in which 16 companies participated, and the second on August 12 where 23 companies, including foreign firms, participated. While it has also said that  the project would entail private sector investment of around Rs 30,000 crore. 


Taking the total to 151 trains, as part of its privatisation plan, the Railways aims to introduce 12 trains in 2022-23, in which 45 in 2023-2024, 50 in 2025-26 and 44 in 2026-27. 

The RFQ which was floated on July 1 is likely to be finalised by November. And, the national transporter targets to award all the clusters by February 2021.

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