IRCTC, BHEL in talks to run private trains

By siliconindia  |  Tuesday, 03 August 2021, 11:15:08 AM IST

IRCTC, BHEL in talks to run private trains

State-run Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is holding a discussion with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) to enter into an alliance to run private trains. Both the public sector undertakings (PSUs) are actively considering forming a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to operate passenger trains on the routes where IRCTC has put in bids.

“BHEL will be putting in the money required for private rail service, while IRCTC is going to focus on operational requirements,” an official aware of the updates. He continued on to add that the business model of IRCTC has not been capital expenditure oriented. It has only created the ability to enhance operations.

Previously, the Indian Railways received bids from IRCTC and Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) for operating 29 pairs of private trains with 40 rakes falling under two clusters in Delhi and one cluster in Mumbai zones with an investment of around 7,200 crore. The ministry would expeditiously complete the evaluation and decide on the bids.

In November 2020, at least 13 top companies, including IRCTC, GMR, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Welspun Enterprises were shortlisted by the railways for operating private trains in 12 clusters comprising 151 trains. Spain’s Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarrriles had also evinced interest by responding to the railway ministry’s request for qualifications (RFQ). The contract would be for 35 years, and the project involves a private investment of 30,000 crore.

This RFQ was for private participation in the operation of passenger train services through 151 modern trains in over 12 clusters. These clusters had 140 origin destination pairs of routes. A total of 120 applications were received from 15 applicant companies for all the 12 clusters.

Late last month, Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Rajya Sabha that current passenger train services shall not be affected by the operation of train services through Private-Public Partnership (PPP) mode and these will be in addition to the existing train services”

Many experts are of the view that private train project is expected to boost the Indian Railways’ revenues and private investment could be encouraged for more efficient functioning. It may be noted that the Centre had increased investment in railways to 2.15 lakh crore in 2021-22 fiscal, from Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2019-20 fiscal.

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