On 12 August, private firms attended the pre-application meeting for running private trains, another step towards introducing private train services on 12 clusters across the Indian Railways network.
Strict Rules For Private Operators
The Indian Railways has come up with strict rules for private operators while designing the new business segment of private train operations.
Basically, they will have to pay heavy damages to the Railways if trains get delayed or even comes early and must guarantee at least 95 percent punctuality each year to avoid financial penalties.
Railways will depute its “representatives” in the offices of the private companies as it going to be a revenue-sharing arrangement with the government, to ascertain that they are reporting their earnings “honestly and faithfully”.
Further, the private firm will pay 10 times the difference as damages if the actual revenue deviation is more than 1 percent of what is reported.
All these rules are part of the Key Performance Indicators for private players to adhere to when they run passenger trains in India.
On Wednesday, the Railways made the Draft Concession Agreement public during the second pre-application meeting of prospective bidders to discuss queries.
Interested Firms
Some of the firms which have purchased the tender document are GMR Infrastructure Limited, I- Board India Private Limited,
Medha, Sterlite Power, Bharat Forge, CAF India Private Limited, IRCTC Limited, BHEL, LKB Infrastructure Private Limited, Bombardier Transportation India, Titagarh Wagons Limited, Gateway Rail, Jasan Infra Private Limited, R. K. Associates & Hoteliers Private Limited,
ALSTOM Transport India Limited, Hind Rectifiers Limited, PSGG Technologies Private Limited, BEML, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments Private Limited, and Siemens Limited.
What Does The Draft Say?
According to this draft, the private trains should have sliding doors, coach surveillance, Braille signs, alarm systems, ensure noise-free travel and more.
Also, the train should be able to accelerate its speed of 160 kmph from 0 kmph in a maximum of 140 seconds on level track, fitted with an emergency brake that can stop the train in less than 1,250 m when the Train is traveling at 160 kmph.
The Draft said, “Each coach shall have a minimum of four electrically/pneumatically powered, plug type doors, two on each side. The door mechanism shall have safety provisions whereby the train shall not start unless all doors have been closed and electrically locked. Provision shall be made for passengers to open doors to permit evacuation from a stopped train in an emergency. There shall be an internal and external manual release mechanism on one door per side in each coach. All windows shall be provided with double-glazed safety glass,”.
Further, the sitting car of the train should have a minimum of six surveillance cameras to cover the passenger area for security purposes.
It said, “In addition, adequate numbers in the gangway/vestibule area as deemed necessary shall also be provided. Additionally, at least one camera shall be placed in Driving Cab for gathering frontend view, track and OHE conditions etc. Cameras shall be placed on the outer side of the train for gathering the rear view of the platform. One/two cameras shall be installed on the roof of driving Car/powerhead towards the pantograph to monitor the roof equipment. The passenger coach surveillance system (PRSS) shall comprise an IP-based close circuit television (CCTV) network, surveillance cameras and other accessories as required with onboard equipment for streaming of video to the central server for selected cameras,”.
Apart from this, the trains will also have an Emergency Talk-Back [ETB] (on two physically independent channels) in each coach.
Additionally, there will be a Passenger Information System to provide automatic announcement and the display of destination information on displays throughout the train in languages like Hindi, English and other regional languages.
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