The Ministry of Railways (MOR) had invited Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for private participation in the operation of passenger train services. Firms like L&T, GMR, Welspun, BHEL has submitted an application over 12 clusters comprising 140 Origin Destination pair through newly introduced 151 modern trains to increase the high-quality trains.
MOR has received over 120 Applications for the 12 Clusters, from 15 applicant firms, 14 Indian and 1 Spanish. The first and foremost initiative by MOR to attract private investment for running Passenger Trains over Indian Railway Network has received an excellent response. The project is expected to provide private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crores. A transparent two-stage process comprising of Request for Qualification (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP) are framed to select the private entities to undertake the project. The RFQ for 12 clusters were published on 01 July 2020. After the successful two-stage bid completion the MOR will hand over the RFP documents to the qualified applicants by November 2020. MOR is targeting to award all the Clusters by February 2021.
120 applications for 12 clusters are split up is as follows Mumbai 1 and Mumbai 2 with 9 and 12 RFQs, Delhi 1 and Delhi 2 with 10 and 12 RFQs, Chandigarh, Howrah, Patna, Chennai with 9 RFQs each, Prayagraj, Secunderabad, Jaipur with 10 RFQs and Bengaluru with 11 RFQ. Companies like IRCTC, GMR Highways, Welspun, Gateway Rail freight, L&T, RK Associates, PNC, BHEL, Arvind Aviation and a few more on a total of 15 has submitted RFQ.
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