New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS): Indian Railways has completed the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) evaluations for PPP in passenger train operation project and out of 120 applications, 102 were found eligible to participate for Request for Proposal (RFP) stage, a press release by the Ministry of Railways said.

The ministry had invited RFQ for private participation in operation of passenger train services over 12 Clusters comprising for more than 150 Origin Destination pair of routes through introduction of 151 modern trains.

"This is the first major initiative of attracting private investment for running passenger trains over Indian Railway Network. The project would entail private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore," the release said.

The private entities for undertaking the project would be selected through a transparent two-stage competitive bidding process comprising of RFQ and RFP.

The RFQ for 12 clusters were published on July 1, 2020 and were opened on October 7, 2020.

Eight applicants each have qualified for Cluster 1 (Mumbai 1), Cluster 5 (Chandigarh), Cluster 6 (Howrah), Cluster 7 (Patna) and Cluster 12 (Bengaluru), 11 for Cluster 2 (Mumbai 2), nine each for Cluster 3 (Delhi 1), Cluster 8 (Prayagraj), Cluster 9 (Secunderabad) and Cluster 10 (Jaipur), 10 for Cluster 3 (Delhi 2) and five for Cluster 11 (Chennai).