New Delhi: Indian Railways, on Thursday, completed Request for Qualification (RFQ) process for Public Private Partnership in passenger train operations. Out of the 120 applications, 102 have been qualified to participate in the financial bids stage.
Ministry of Railways had invited RFQ for private participation in operation of passenger services over 12 Clusters comprising for more than 150 Origin Destination pair of routes through 151 modern trains.
"This is the first major initiative of attracting private investment for running passenger trains over Indian Railway Network. The project would entail Private Sector Investment of about Rs 30,000 crores," said the statement released by Ministry of Railways.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), L&T, GMR, Welspun, CAF emerged as India's top firms which qualified for participation in financial bids.
For Cluster 1 of Mumbai, eight applicants qualified for participation in RFP stage, while eleven qualified for Cluster 2. Nine applicants qualified for Delhi's Cluster 3 and ten qualified for Cluster 4. Eight applicants qualified for Cluster 5, Cluster 6, Cluster 7 of Chandigarh, Howrah and Patna respectively.
Nine applicants qualified for Cluster 8, 9 and 10 of Prayagraj, Secunderabad and Jaipur respectively. For Cluster 11 of Chennai, only five applicants qualified, which is least among all. While eight qualified for Cluster 12 of Bengaluru.
The RFQ for 12 clusters were published on July 1, 2020 and the applications were opened on October 7. Railways got 120 applications from 16 firms.
"The private entities for undertaking the project would be selected through a transparent two-stage competitive bidding process comprising of Request For Qualification (RFQ) and Request For Proposal (RFP)," said the official statement.
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