India will see its first private-operated train on track by April 2023 and the bidding process for this will be over by April 2021, a top Indian Railways executive said on Thursday.

The national transporter invited requests for qualifications (RFQ) from private players on Wednesday to operate 151 trains covering 109 routes that may see investments to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore. “We intend to start operation of the first private operated train in India by April 2023,” said VK Yadav, Chairman of the Railway Board. For railways, these trains will be operated on a revenue neutral model.

According to the plan, the RFQ would be open till September this year and financial bids would be invited after that from selected players by February 2021. “By April 2021, these bids will be finalised and majority of coaches used by these players will be manufactured in India only,” Yadav said.

A big challenge before the Indian Railways would be regarding the maximum speed of 160 kilometer per hour (kmph) set for these trains, because at present there is only one section that is fit to run trains at that speed. This year, the maximum speed limit for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes, was increased from 110 kmph to 130 kmph. “We have already sanctioned a plan to improve the speed of trains in all our routes in the next five to ten years. For Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes, a plan was cleared to improve speed to 160 kmph at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore. Rest of the golden quadrilateral and diagonal will be fit for 130 kmph very soon,” he added.

The Railways indicated that the plan to rope in private players came after an estimate showed that passenger traffic is expected to grow by 55 per cent from the current level by 2030. In 2019, the railways saw 8.4 billion passengers, which is expected to climb to 13 billion by 2030 and 18 billion by 2040. Yadav said this initiative is part of the advanced planning that we are doing to meet this additional demand.

At present, the Railways is running around 2,800 mail/express trains. “Over 95 per cent of the trains will still be operated by the Indian Railways and only 5 per cent will come under public private partnership mode. Railways will get a fixed haulage charge and a revenue share too from the companies, this will make the move revenue neutral for us, as compared to the current loss-making passenger services,” he added.

The 109 routes that are lined up are divided into 12 clusters. The Concession Period for the project will be 35 years. The national transporter will be providing drivers and guards to operate these trains for the private players, the cost of which will be part of the haulage charges.