Govt to attract private participation in transport sector

Lucknow, Jul 31: After partial success in the power and sugar sector, Uttar Pradesh government has now decided to go in for privatisation of the transport sector .

The state government will soon publish global tenders for the Request for qualification (RFQ) next month for attracting investment in the transport sector. On May 14 last, the UP government had invited Expression of Interest'' (EOI) from the private investors for buses plying on 465 route in the state which recently denationalised. UP has adopted the Public Private Partnership(PPP) model for attracting private investment in road transport sector. ''We have received very important feedback from the EOI and as soon as the process of the appointment of the transaction advisors/consultants is completed we will float the RFQ which will be done next month,'' said a senior transport department official here on Thursday, July 31.

The Centre had notified 11 transaction advisors and UP had invited quotation from them and as soon as the advisor was finalised the RFQ would be floated, the official said.

On the basis of the response of the EOI, UP government has also decided to relax the terms and conditions for the bidders. Against minimum size of the fleet of 4,000 buses it has now been reduced to 1,000 buses and to began with, the investor would have to press only 250 buses into service. The operator would be allowed to increase the fleet size to 1,000 buses in next four years. 60 per cent of the fleet would be luxury buses, while the rest 40 per cent would be ordinary.

UNI