Indian Railways has stated that the first set of 12 private trains will be introduced in 2023 and this will be followed by 45 more in the upcoming fiscal, keeping to an initial timeline drawn by the railways that plans to roll out all 151 such train services by 2027.
This would give a substantial kickstart to their plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network, the railways earlier this month invited proposals from companies to run 151 modern passenger trains on 109 pairs of routes across the country. The project would entail a private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore.
As part of the plan for private trains, the railways has been planning to introduce 12 trains in upcoming years 2022-23, 45 in 2023-2024, 50 in 2025-26 and 44 more in the next fiscal, taking the total number of trains to 151 by the end of FY 2026-2027.
According to a timeline for introduction of private passenger trains prepared by the railways, the request for qualification (RFQ), which was floated on July 8, is likely to be finalised by November. Bidders quoting the highest share in gross revenue shall be awarded the project.
