HYDERABAD: Indian Railways on Wednesday opened bids submitted by various entities in response to the Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for public–private partnership (PPP) in the Passenger Train Operations Project.
Of the 120 RFQs, Secunderabad Station has received 10 requests. In all, 120 applications have been received for the 12 clusters, from 15 applicant firms.
Ministry of Railways (MoR) had invited RFQs for private participation in operation of passenger train services over 12 clusters comprising 140 origin-destination pairs of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains, to increase the number of high quality trains operated on the network. This is the first major initiative to attract private investment for running passenger trains over the Indian Railway Network. The project is expected to entail private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore.
The private entities for undertaking the project would be selected through a transparent, two-stage competitive bidding process comprising RFQ and Request for Proposal (RFP).