Indian Railways invites proposals from private companies to run passenger trains

NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): Indian Railways, the world’s fourth-largest network is seeking investments from private firms to operate passenger trains for the first time. The Ministry of Railways today invited request for qualifications (RFQ) from the private companies submit their interest to run passenger trains over 109 pairs of routes by introducing 151 modern trains on Public-Private Partnership. The project will entail an investment of about Rs 30,000 crore.

The 109 pairs have been formed into 12 Clusters across the Indian Railway network. Every Train will have a minimum of 16 coaches. The 12 clusters are Mumbai-1, Mumbai-2, Delhi-1, Delhi-2, Chandigarh, Howrah, Patna, Prayagraj, Secunderabad, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru.