Companies that pay more will run private trains: Bid document

Companies that will offer maximum “premium” in the form of their revenue share will be selected to run the 150 private trains on 100 identified routes. According to the draft bid document prepared by the railways, this will be the “sole criteria” for evaluation of their bids.

Railways officials said nearly two dozen private players have shown keen interest in the railways plan to allow private entities to run trains in its bid to offer high quality service. The companies that have shown interest include Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Medha, Bharat Forge, BEML, IRCTC, RK Associates, Gatx, Essel Group and Adani Group.

Sources said the railways will levy a haulage charge for each kilometre from the private operators, which could be around Rs 668 per km. Each train will have at least 16 coaches.


The railways is likely to invite bids, which it expects would see an investment of nearly Rs 22,500 crore. Officials said the revenue-sharing model would include total earning from ticket sale and non-fare revenue collection.

The private players will have responsibility to design, procure, finance, operate and maintain the trains. They will also have full right to determine the fare and its collection. The 100 origin-destination pairs have been grouped into 12 clusters and each cluster will have 12 trains. No successful bidder will get more than two clusters, the draft document said.