RFQs called for PPPs participation on a DBFO basis
The use of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is being planned for a few initiatives to bridge the gap in capital funding and to induct modern technologies and improve efficiencies in the Indian Railways which has estimated Rs.50 lakh crore capital investment for up to 2030.
Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal said this in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha (parliament) on 16 Sept 2020, adding that one of the PPP initiatives is to invite private players to invest and induct modern rakes over select routes to provide world-class services to the passengers.
Goyal underlined the need to improve the transport segment by expanding the rail network, capacity augmentation, rolling stock induction and other modernization works for better delivery of passenger and freight services.
As part of this initiative, the Ministry of Railways has issued 12 Requests for Qualification (RFQs) on 1 July 2020 for the operation of passenger trains over approximately 109 origin-destination pairs (divided into 12 clusters) through PPP on Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) basis.
However, the responsibility of train operations and safety certification rests with Indian Railways in all such cases.
As of now, no regular passenger train service, running over Indian Railways, is being operated by Private Operator/s, he told the house. #investment #railways #infrastructure #projects #network #technologies /fiinews.com
