BENGALURU: Eight firms are in the race to operate passenger trains in the Bengaluru cluster through private public partnership. As many as 102 of 120 applications received for 12 clusters were eligible, according to a release from the Ministry of Railways.
The following pairs of trains (both ways) are proposed along these routes for the Bengaluru cluster (Cluster 12): Mysuru and Bhuvaneshwar (daily); Bengaluru and Guwahati (Tri-weekly), Bengaluru and Delhi (daily), Bengaluru and Howrah via Dharmavaram (daily) between Bengaluru and Ranchi (bi-weekly).
Railways proposes running 151 trains with private operators. “This is the first major initiative for attracting private investment for running passenger trains over the Indian Railways network. The project would entail private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore,” the release said. Indian Railways is set to begin private operation of trains by March 2023.