With several top corporate houses expressing interest to take part in operating the private passenger trains, Indian Railways has said that these trains will run at 130 kmph speed initially.
As the Railways is planning to roll out the private trains by March 2023, these trains will run at 130 kmph speed in the first year, while it will operate at 160 kmph speed in 2024.
As per draft specifications of private trains issued by India Railways, the train should be designed in such a way that it can run at 180 kmph speed during testing.
"These trains once operation, should able to reduce the travel time by 30 % from current journey time when it runs at 160 kmph speed. The Railways is working racing against time to improving infrastructure including upgrading tracks and signaling system to enable trains to operate at 160 kmph in some routes," said an official in the Railways.
The trains will have modern facilities including electronic sliding doors, cameras in each coach, information system to display destination in different languages, emergency talk-back option in each coach where passengers can talk to the drivers or guards in case of an emergency.
Aimed at maintaining strict punctuality of trains, private entities have to pay heavy penalties in case the trains they operate are delayed or reach the destination early.
Private train operators have to maintain 95 % punctuality throughout the year. 15 minutes delay on the arrival of trains is to be considered as a delay. Even private operators also have to pay penalties for misreporting their revenue or in case of train cancellations for reasons attributable to them.
However, if the punctuality of a train is affected by bad weather, cattle run over, human-run over, law and order, public agitation, miscreant activity, accident, heavy traffic at level crossing gates, and operation of passenger alarm system, neither Railways nor private operators will be liable to pay damages. And private players can fix the damage amount on their own.
The Railways plan to allow private operators to run passenger trains as it has received good responses. A total of 23 big corporate houses have shown interest to take part in the project.
The Railways invited 12 Request for Qualification (RFQ) from private players to run passenger trains on 109 important routes in 12 clusters through the introduction of 151 modern rakes. These new trains will be over and above the existing ones operated on the network.
The private entities for undertaking the project will be selected through a two-stage competitive bidding process comprising of Request for Qualification (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP).