Where does Indian Railways stand on its budget proposal to introduce modern trains

According to a report by IANS, Indian Railways has completed the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) evaluations for PPP in passenger train operation project and out of 120 applications, 102 were found eligible to participate for Request for Proposal (RFP) stage, a press release by the Ministry of Railways said.

The ministry had invited RFQ for private participation in operation of passenger train services over 12 Clusters comprising more than 150 Origin Destination pairs of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains. "This is the first major initiative of attracting private investment for running passenger trains over Indian Railway Network. The project would entail private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore," the release said.

The private entities for undertaking the project would be selected through a transparent two-stage competitive bidding process comprising an RFQ and RFP. The RFQ for 12 clusters were published on July 1, 2020 and were opened on October 7, 2020. Eight applicants each have qualified for Cluster 1 (Mumbai 1), Cluster 5 (Chandigarh), Cluster 6 (Howrah), Cluster 7 (Patna) and Cluster 12 (Bengaluru), 11 for Cluster 2 (Mumbai 2), nine each for Cluster 3 (Delhi 1), Cluster 8 (Prayagraj), Cluster 9 (Secunderabad) and Cluster 10 (Jaipur), 10 for Cluster 3 (Delhi 2) and five for Cluster 11 (Chennai).

The railways has suspended the operations of its corporate trains run by the IRCTC from Lucknow to Delhi and Ahmedabad to Mumbai as they found few takers amidst the coronavirus pandemic following the resumption of services more than a month ago. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), a public sector undertaking (PSU) of the Ministry of Railways, had restarted the operation of its fleet of Tejas Express trains from October 17, after it was suspended due to the pandemic.

"However, lately there is a surge in the number of COVID cases. To prevent the spread of COVID-19 cases, the Indian Railways has been advocating maintaining social distancing etc. and advising passengers to travel by trains only if it is absolutely necessary. Being aware of the COVID situation, a lesser number of persons are travelling in both the Tejas express. Thus, IRCTC has temporarily halted their operations," a statement from the rail PSU said. The present position will be reviewed to revive the operation of the trains in December.