Indian Railways is gearing up to introduce private train services on its network! Today, several private firms attended the pre application meeting for running private trains in 12 clusters across the Indian Railways network. According to Indian Railways, some of the firms that have purchased the tender document include Medha, Sterlite Power, Bharat Forge, GMR Infrastructure Limited, I- Board India Private Limited, CAF India Private Limited, IRCTC Limited, BHEL, ALSTOM Transport India Limited, Hind Rectifiers Limited, LKB Infrastructure Private Limited, Bombardier Transportation India, Titagarh Wagons Limited, Gateway Rail, Jasan Infra Private Limited, R. K. Associates & Hoteliers Private Limited, PSGG Technologies Private Limited, BEML, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited, L and T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments Private Limited, and Siemens Limited.
The date of publication of RFQ was 1 July 2020 and the last date of receiving queries was 16 July 2020. The first pre application conference was held on 21 July 2020, while the date for the authority to respond to the queries was latest by 31 July 2020. The last date of receiving queries was 7 August 2020. The second pre application conference was held on 12 August 2020 (today), and the authority will have to respond to the queries latest by 21 August 2020. The application due date (ADD) is 8 September 2020 and the short-listed firms will be announced on 8 November 2020 (60 days from ADD). While the RFP is likely to be uploaded in November 2020. The bid due date is scheduled for March 2021 and the selection of bidders for each cluster is likely to be done on April 2021.
In the near future, as many as 151 modern private train services will be operated by private firms over 109 origin-destination pair of Indian Railways’ routes. The national transporter believes that the project will improve the overall travel experience of railway passengers. With the launch of private trains, the transportation services will be improved as well as modern technology rolling stock will be introduced.