Railway Ministry conducts second pre-bid meeting for private trains, 23 firms show interest

Indian Railways on Wednesday (August 12) held the second pre-bid meeting on private player train project. As many as 23 firms have shown interest in running private trains in India.

New Delhi: As many as 23 firms have shown interest in running private trains in India as they attended the second pre-application meeting. Indian Railways on Wednesday (August 12) held the second pre-bid meeting on private player train project.

The list of 23 companies includes Medha, Sterlite Power, Bharat Forge, GMR Infrastructure Ltd, I-Board India Pvt Ltd, ALSTOM Transport India Ltd, BEML, BHEL, Bombardier Transportation India, CAF India Pvt Ltd, Gateway Rail, Hind Rectifier Ltd, IRCTC Ltd, ISQ Asia, JASAN Infra, JKB Infra, L&T, Megha Engineering, National Investment and Infra Fund Ltd, Siemens and TITAGARH WAGONS Ltd.

The Conference was also attended by NITI Aayog officials, who along with Railway officials provided clarifications on the queries raised by the prospective applicants on the provisions of RFQ and bidding process.

The queries raised by Applicants included issued pertaining to the flexibility in clusters, eligibility criteria, bidding process, procurement of trains, fares, operations and maintenance.

While responding to the same, Railways emphasized that complete freedom will be given to private partner in terms of procurement of train can either be purchased or taken on lease.

It was also been clarified that is risk with regard to operation of train shall be allocated to the party best suited to manage them. Private entity shall have the freedom to decide on the fare to be charged on passengers. Queries with regard to the definition of gross revenue, MoR informed that the indicative haulage charges are at Rs 512.31 per train kilometre for 2019-20 with indexation.

As the due date for opening of RFQ is Supreme 8, the responses to the second pre-application conference will be uploaded by August 21.

The private partnership for undertaking the project will be selected through a two-stage competitive bidding process comprising of Request For Qualification (RFQ) and Request For Proposal (RFP).

The first pre-application conference was held on July 21, 2020, after which Ministry of Railways reduced RFQ fee by one-tenth for participating in more than one project, removed restriction of up to 3 projects per bidder and clarified that leasing of trains is allowed. Traffic data, draft concession agreement, draft feasibility report, and draft manual for standards and specifications of trains were also shared.

This is the first initiative of running trains under Public Private Partnership Model. The project would entail a private sector investment of Rs 30,000 crore. Railway Board Chairman, Vinod Kumar Yadav, informed that the first set of private trains are scheduled to start from 2023.

In a statement issued by Ministry of Railways, it has been stated, "The Project for Private Participation in Passenger Train operations will bring a paradigm shift in passenger experience by significantly enhancing the quality of service while reducing transit time and supply-demand deficit through introduction of modern technology rolling stock. The project will augment the availability of transportation services for the public.