Nine firms including GMR Highways, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, Megha Engineering & Infrastructure have been shortlisted for running private passenger trains operations for Secunderabad cluster.
These are among the 102 found eligible of the 120 companies which had applied in the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage, senior officials informed on Friday.
The other firms in the race for the Secunderabad cluster are: Cube Highways and Infrastructure III, consortium of Gateway Rail Freight Limited & Gateway Distriparks Limited, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd., IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, Malempati Power Private Limited, and Techno Infra Developers Pvt Ltd.
The Ministry of Railways (MOR) had invited RFQ for private participation in operation of passenger train services over 12 clusters comprising for more than 150 origin destination pair of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains.
Major initiative
This is the first major initiative of attracting private investment for running passenger trains over Indian railway network with an expected investment of about ₹30,000 crore.
Private entities for undertaking the project would be selected through a transparent two-stage competitive bidding process comprising of Request for Qualification (RFQ) and RFP. RFQ for 12 clusters were published on July 1 and applications have been received for the 12 clusters. Now, RFP documents will be made available to the qualified applicants very soon.
Details of the final applicants for the other clusters are: Mumbai-1 Cluster-1, eight applicants, Mumbai-2 Cluster-2, 11 applicants, Delhi – 1 Cluster – 3, nine applicants, Delhi-2, Cluster 4, 10 applicants, Chandigarh, Cluster 5, eight applicants, Howrah, Cluster 6, eight applicants, Patna, Cluster 7, eight applicants, Prayagraj, Cluster 8, nine applicants, Jaipur, Cluster 10, nine applicants, Chennai, Cluster 11, five applicants and Bengaluru, Cluster 12, eight applicants, an official spokesperson said in a press release.
