new Delhi. Like an airline, passengers may have to pay for preferred seats, luggage and services during the journey while traveling in a private train. This will be part of the gross revenue that the private entity concerned will have to share with the Railways. Railways has recently issued a Request for Proposal (RFQ) inviting private units to run passenger trains on its network.
According to officials, private units have to decide on the amount to be collected from the passengers for these services. The document states that bidders will have to offer a share in the gross revenue in the request proposal to take up the project according to their financial capacity. According to the request proposal, the Railways will give freedom to private units to collect fare from passengers. They can also consider new options for generating revenue.
The RFQ states, ‘No decision has been taken yet on the definition of gross revenue. Well this may include the following things. The amount received by the company concerned in lieu of service to passengers on behalf of passengers or any third party will come under it. This will include the fare on the ticket, choice of preferred seat, fee for baggage / parcel / cargo (if not included in the ticket fare).
According to the document, ‘during the journey services such as catering, laying out, any material provided on demand, Wi-Fi (if not included in the ticket fare). Apart from this, the amount received from things like advertising, branding will also be a part of gross revenue. The chairman of the Railway Board dismissed the possibility of ticket fare being expensive and said that it would be based on the market and competitive price.
It is noteworthy that for the first time the Railways has invited proposals from private companies for running 151 modern passenger trains on 109 routes across the country. An investment of around Rs 30,000 crore from the private sector is estimated in this project.
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