More exclusivity, alternate paths — what Railways could offer to private players to run trains

Termination payments, granting alternate paths and more relaxations for exclusivity of routes — the Narendra Modi government has planned major concessions to assuage the concerns of private players before they start bidding to operate trains.

These concessions were cleared by the Ministry of Railways and Group of Secretaries (GoS) in a meeting held last week. The meeting was chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs Tarun Bajaj, among others.

“In the second pre-bid meeting that was held in January, the bidders had raised certain issues with regard to the draft agreement,” said a senior official in the government.

“The issues were discussed in the meeting with the secretaries, and the draft agreement will be tweaked accordingly,” said the official, who did not wish to be named.

The final bids for 150 private trains, which are scheduled to begin operations on 109 routes by 2023, are expected to come by 31 March.

“It is a rare case where the government is the facilitator and competitor for the bidders, so obviously, the bidders have some concerns,” said a second official, who didn’t want to be identified.

“The government has tried to assuage their concerns in a very meaningful manner, and the new agreement will reflect these relaxations,” he added.