The Ministry of Railways has received 120 submissions from 15 applicants in response to the Private Train Operation project Request For Qualification (RFQ).
Indian Railways plans to allow private operators to run 140 trains from 12 clusters on its network. These clusters are centred around key urban that witness heavy passenger traffic.
Selection of private operators is to be done through a two stage bidding process. The second stage of the process is a Request For Proposal (RFP) from the qualifying parties from the RFQ stage.
The Ministry of Railways will now evaluate the various applications. Qualifying applicants will be moved to the Request For Proposal process by November 2020. All clusters are likely to be awarded by February 2021.
RFQ Applications Received For Private Train Operations Per Cluster
| SN | Cluster Name | Number of RFQs received |
| 1 | Mumbai 1 | 9 |
| 2 | Mumbai 2 | 12 |
| 3 | Delhi 1 | 10 |
| 4 | Delhi 2 | 12 |
| 5 | Chandigarh | 9 |
| 6 | Howarh | 9 |
| 7 | Patna | 9 |
| 8 | Prayagraj | 10 |
| 9 | Secunderabad | 10 |
| 10 | Jaipur | 10 |
| 11 | Chennai | 9 |
| 12 | Bengaluru | 11 |
| Total | 120 |
Participants Applying for Operating Private Trains on Indian Railways
| SN | Applicant’s Name |
| 1 | Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited |
| 2 | Sainath sales and Services Pvt Ltd |
| 3 | IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited |
| 4 | Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation LImited |
| 5 | GMR Highways Limited |
| 6 | Welspun Enterprises Limited |
| 7 | Gateway Rail freight Limited |
| 8 | Cube Highways and Infrastructure III Pvt Ltd |
| 9 | Malempati Power Private Limited |
| 10 | L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited |
| 11 | RK Associates and Hoteliers Pvt Ltd |
| 12 | Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarrriles, S.A |
| 13 | PNC Infratech Ltd |
| 14 | Arvind Aviation |
| 15 | BHEL |
Indian Railways expects to net an overall investment of around 30,000 crores for this project from the private entities running the trains.
Read more developments on the Indian Railways Private Train Operations project here.
