Ministry of Railways has invited request for private participation for the operation of 151 modern trains over 109 Origin Destination(OD) pairs of routes, the Ministry of Railways stated on Wednesday. The trains will be run by private operators once the selection process is over.
With this initiative, it becomes the first time that private players have been introduced to run passenger trains over the Indian Railways network.
These trains will run on routes where the demand for trains is already higher than the existing capacity. Once the selection process is over, these 151 trains will run over and above the already existing trains.
The 109 OD Pairs have been formed into 12 Clusters across the Indian Railway network. Each Train shall have a minimum of 16 coaches.
The driver and guard of the trains will Railway officials. The safety clearance of trains will be done by Railways only.
“The Private Entity shall pay to Indian Railways fixed haulage charges, energy charges as per actual consumption and a share in Gross Revenue determined through a transparent bidding process,” the statement put out by the Indian Railways read.
The majority of the trains will be manufactured in India (Make in India). Private entities will be responsible for financing, procuring, operation, and maintenance of the trains.
The project would entail a private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore.
Source: dnaindia.com