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NEW DELHI: A total of 16 private players including Bombardier, GMR, Bharat Forge, BHEL, IRCTC, Medha, CAF and Gateway Rail participated in the first pre-bid meeting on private train operation even as heavyweights such as Tata Group and Adani Groups didn’t take part in the deliberations held on Tuesday.
However, non-participation in the pre-bid meeting doesn’t bar any entity to participate in the bidding process. Pre-bid meetings in infrastructure projects are aimed at discussing issues and addressing concerns of potential bidders. The second pre-bid meeting will be held on August 8.
Sources said some of the participants raised the issue of railways offering pre-determined routes and scheduled departure times as well. They added the private players suggested these should be made flexible for the successful bidders considering that they will take the risk of ridership and will have to share the revenue with the national transporter.
TOI has learnt that the participants also sought answers to why railways was asking them to introduce trains that can run at 160 kmph when rail tracks are not equipped for this.
The bid document floated by the railways specifies the scheduled departure time from each originating station of the 109 routes which will be offered to private players. The total travel time has also been mentioned in the document.
Recently, railway board chairman, V K Yadav had told TOI that allowing private players to run trains is part of a comprehensive plan. It includes upgrading 11,295 km comprising seven high density corridors to allow passenger trains to run at 160 kmph by March 2025. These stretches are Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Mumbai, Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Guwahati, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Howrah and Chennai-Mumbai.
The Indian Railways plans to roll out these trains in phases starting April 2023. Moreover, there is a plan to overhaul the timings which will specify the dedicated hours for running only express trains and separate hours would be kept for freight and slow moving trains on each corridor. There will also be dedicated window, say for 3-4 hours, to carry out maintenance works.
However, non-participation in the pre-bid meeting doesn’t bar any entity to participate in the bidding process. Pre-bid meetings in infrastructure projects are aimed at discussing issues and addressing concerns of potential bidders. The second pre-bid meeting will be held on August 8.
Sources said some of the participants raised the issue of railways offering pre-determined routes and scheduled departure times as well. They added the private players suggested these should be made flexible for the successful bidders considering that they will take the risk of ridership and will have to share the revenue with the national transporter.
TOI has learnt that the participants also sought answers to why railways was asking them to introduce trains that can run at 160 kmph when rail tracks are not equipped for this.
The bid document floated by the railways specifies the scheduled departure time from each originating station of the 109 routes which will be offered to private players. The total travel time has also been mentioned in the document.
Recently, railway board chairman, V K Yadav had told TOI that allowing private players to run trains is part of a comprehensive plan. It includes upgrading 11,295 km comprising seven high density corridors to allow passenger trains to run at 160 kmph by March 2025. These stretches are Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Mumbai, Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Guwahati, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Howrah and Chennai-Mumbai.
The Indian Railways plans to roll out these trains in phases starting April 2023. Moreover, there is a plan to overhaul the timings which will specify the dedicated hours for running only express trains and separate hours would be kept for freight and slow moving trains on each corridor. There will also be dedicated window, say for 3-4 hours, to carry out maintenance works.
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