Private trains: Railways holds first pre-bid meeting

The Ministry of Railways on July 21 said 16 prospective applicants participated in the first pre application conference on private train project.

Ministry of Railways has invited 12 Request for Qualifications for private participation in operation of passenger train services over 109 Origin Destination pair of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains, which shall be in addition to the existing trains.

The issues and concerns raised by the prospective applicants were discussed and clarifications were provided by the officials of Ministry of Railways and NITI Aayog. The queries were mainly related to eligibility criteria, bid process, procurement of rakes, operations of trains and composition of clusters.

On haulage charges, Railways said the charges will be specified upfront and will be suitably indexed for the entire concession period.