Railways fast-tracks proposal to let private players operate 151 trains

Move to see investment of around Rs 30,000 crore

Fast-tracking the proposal to run private trains in the country, the Railways has initiated the process to rope in players to operate 151 passenger trains, which are expected to see investments to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore.

Requests for qualification (RFQs) have been invited from private firms for operating train services over 109 origin destination (OD) pairs of routes. The routes have been formed into 12 clusters across the Indian Railways network. “This is the first initiative of private investment for running passenger trains over the Indian Railways network. Majority of the trains will be manufactured in India. The private