SPECIAL PARCEL TRAIN OPERATOR SCHEME

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS 
RAILWAY BOARD
Sub: Policy on 'Special Parcel Train Operator (SPTO)' Scheme. 

Ministry of Railways has formulated final draft of policy on "Special Parcel Train Operator (SPTO) Scheme". A copy of the policy is attached herewith. 

Zonal Railways and prospective investors are requested to go through the draft policy and send their comments/ suggestions to Adviser Freight Marketing, Room No. 471, Ministry of Railways, Rail 
Bhavan, New Delhi - 110001 latest by 22.08.2014 at telefax No. 011-23385222 or e-mail at address - suhask56@gmail.com 

`Special Parcel Train Operator (SPTO)' Scheme 
1.0 Objective 
1.1 In order to encourage investment through public-private partnership mode in procurement of Parcel Vans (General service Parcel Vans - Freight Stock or Special purpose Parcel Vans like Refrigerated Vans, Milk tankers etc, for a specific commodity) to meet the future demand of traffic and thereby increase 
Indian Railway's market share in non-bulk traffic, the scheme for procurement of Parcel Vans by public private partnership has been formulated. 
2.0 Definitions and Abbreviations Definitions and abbreviations of some the terms used in this document are as under- 

2.1 'CCM' means Chief Commercial Manager of the zonal railway 
2.2 `CCM(FM)' means Chief Commercial Manager (Freight Marketing) of the zonal 
railway 
2.3 `CME' means Chief Mechanical Engineer of the zonal railway 
2.4 'COD' means commencement date of operation 
2.5 'COM' means Chief Operations Manager of the zonal railway 
2.6 'CRWC' means Central Railside Warehouse Company Limited 
2.7 'FOIS' means Freight Operation Information System 
2.8 'IR' means Indian Railways 
2.9 `MOR' means Ministry of Railways, Railway Board 
2.10 Parcel Vans' means General service Parcel Vans - Freight Stock only, or Special 
purpose Parcel Vans like Refrigerated Vans, Milk tankers etc. for a specific 
commodity. 
2.11 `PFT' means Private Freight Terminal 
2.12 `PMS' means Parcel Management System 
2.13 `RDS0' means Railway Design and Standards Organization, Lucknow 
2.14 `SPT0' means 'Special Parcel Train Operator' and refers to the parties who 
invest in procurement of rakes and arrange loading, unloading and handling of 
parcel traffic in the 'Special Parcel Train (SPT)', owned by them after obtaining 
necessary approval from MOR under this policy. 
2.15 `SPT' means 'Special Parcel Train' comprising of Parcel Vans, a privately owned 
parcel train for transportation of parcel traffic/ commodities. 
2.16 Vehicles/wagons' means any type of vehicles/ wagons for transportation of 
specific commodity or group of commodities approved by Indian Railways. 
2.17 WLC' means Wagon Leasing Company 
3.0 Eligibility 
3.1 Applicant should be any one of the following- 
(i) A Registered company in India as per Companies Act 1956; 
A subsidiary company; 
(iii) A Joint Venture Company or partnership; 
(iv) A Public Sector in the business of logistics or warehousing; 
(v) Association or group of companies/ Registered co-operative societies; 
Page 1 of 13 312A 
3.2 Applicant should have minimum one year experience in any one of the 
following fields- 
(i) Transport or Logistics; 
(ii) Manufacturers, 
(iii) Warehousing; 
(iv) Private terminal Operator; 
(v) Wagon leasing company. 
3.3 The company should have a net worth of a minimum Rs. 20 crores or an 
annual turn over of minimum Rs. 30 crores as on 31st March of the previous 
financial year. 
3.4 Any company which has been declared sick under Sick Industrial Companies 
(Special Provision) Act 1985 shall not be eligible to apply under these rules and 
operate either individually or in association with other companies. 
3.5 In case the applicant is a subsidiary company, experience and net worth of the 
holding company, owning more than 50% equity in the subsidiary company, 
may be reckoned for the purpose of Para 3.2 and 3.3 above. However, in such 
cases, the applicant company must have more than 25% of the prescribed net 
worth of Rs. 20 crores. 
3.6 There shall be no change of control of the SPTO through transfer of direct or 
indirect, legal or beneficial ownership or control of any equity or other 
contractual arrangement before the completion of one year from 
commencement of commercial operations of the SPTO's train pursuant to the 
Agreement, in which afterwards there may be a Change of Control but that 
shall be effected only after an approval from the MOR, which may reject such 
Change of Control from a national security or public interest perspective as will 
be detailed in the Agreement. 
4.0 Categories for procurement of vehicles/wagons 
4.1 There will be following two categories for procurement of vehicles i.e. Parcel 
Vans/ wagons (on Broad Gauge only) under the scheme: 
(i) Category 'I' General service Parcel Vans - Freight Stock 
Category Special purpose Parcel Vans like Refrigerated Vans, Milk 
tankers etc. for a specific commodity - Coaching Stock. 
4.2 For Category `11' the rake can be a mix of Refrigerated Vans and Milk Tankers. If 
required, a speed certificate should be taken from RDSO by the Railways. 
5.0 Procurement of vehicles/ wagons 
5.1 Procurement of vehicles/ wagons for induction under this policy will be allowed 
only with prior administrative approval of MOR. Vehicles/ Wagons procured 
without the prior approval of MOR will not be permitted to be inducted for 
operation under this scheme. 
5.2 The applicant has to procure a minimum of one full rake (consisting of Parcel 
Vans/ wagons) as notified by Indian Railways with 4% maintenance spares and 
one brake van. The Standard Composition of rake shall be prescribed by Indian 
Railways from time-to-time. 
Page 2 of 13 DRAFT 
In case of mixed rake of 2 different types of stock, mix of spares should be in 
proportion to the mix of each type of rake composition with minimum one 
spare of each type. 
5.3 The SPTO (investor) can own any number of vehicles/wagons in unit of rake 
loads without any ceiling, to the extent required by them, subject to a 
minimum of one rake with Brakevan. 
5.4 Procurement of Parcel Vans in piecemeal shall not be permitted except for 
completing the rake. 
5.5 In case, the Railway Administration decides to enhance the length of standard 
composition of the rake of Parcel train, the investor shall be required to procure 
additional Parcel Vans to form rake as per the revised length size The 
procurement of such additional Parcel Vans should be done within a year after 
the permission has been granted. 
5.6 Rake(s) should be procured under this scheme within two year from the date of 
signing of Agreement, unless specific prior extension is given by Railway Board. 
5.7 Ownership of Special Parcel Train (SPT) shall be with the SPTO (investor) who 
procured the rake under the scheme. The Special Parcel Train (SPT) procured 
under the scheme shall not be merged in the wagon pool of IR. Rakes 
comprising of such wagons shall be identified as exclusively belonging to the 
SPTO who has procured them. 
5.8 SPTO can also procure vehicles/ wagons through Wagon Leasing Company 
registered with Indian Railways. 
5.9 Vehicles/ Wagons to be inducted in the system must be in compliance with 
applicable IRS designs and specifications. Such vehicles/ wagons will be 
inducted after inspection by RDSO. 
Parcel Vans (Goods Stock) or Other Coaching Vehicles/Stock other than Indian 
Railway's Standard (IRS) designs can also be procured subject to their approval 
as per the extant latest version of Private Wagon Design Approval policy issued 
by RDSO. Approval from MOR should also be obtained. 
5.10 Privately procured vehicles/ wagons will be inducted into service only after 
completion of the mandatory safety and quality inspections by authorized 
agencies as notified by MOR. 
5.11 No rake of SPT will be inducted without a Brakevan. The Brakevan will be 
added to the general pool of Indian Railways Brakevans, on the condition that 
Indian Railways will meet the operational requirement of providing Brakevans 
to the SPT's. 
5.12 Customers will be required to incorporate the following warranty clause in the 
purchase contract with the wagon manufacturer: 
"Supplies shall be guaranteed against any manufacturing defect/ poor 
workmanship quality etc. for a period of 24 months of commissioning or 30 
months from the date of delivery, whichever is earlier. During this period 
contractor will arrange to repair/ replace any defective part free of cost or 
replace complete set if required. Further, since these wagons are to be utilized 
by the customers of Indian Railways, they are hereby authorized to invoke this 
warranty clause in case of any default on the part of wagon manufacturer." 
Page 3 of 13 DR F 
5.13 The applicant shall inform the MOR regarding details of placement of 
procurement order. Similarly the date of actual induction shall be advised by 
the applicant to MOR under advice to concerned zonal railway(s) indicating the 
loading and unloading terminals. 
5.14 In case of the already approved design of vehicle/ wagons, the SFTO should 
procure the rake and start operation under this scheme within one year from 
the date of signing of the Agreement. In case of failure to adhere to this time 
schedule, unless specific prior extension is given by the Railway Board, the 
approval may be canceled by MOR. 
The concerned zonal railways shall obtain CRS sanction before induction of 
new design vehicle/ wagon rake for operation in Indian Railway's system. 
5.15 In case of new design vehicles/wagons, the applicant while submitting 
application shall give details of type and design of vehicle/ wagon and it's 
specifications. The same shall be evaluated by MOR in consultation with RDSO 
and if it is found to be technically feasible to operate such new design wagons 
approval will be accorded. Such wagons should be inducted in IR system 
within two years from the date of approval given by MOR. 
5.16 Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) of Indian Railways shall also cater 
to the requirements of the operator for an integrated management and 
operations information service and the operator shall provide all relevant data 
as required by FOIS and shall be given 'read only' access to this system on 
payment of reasonable cost. 
For maintenance of rakes procured under category-II, FOIS terminals would be 
provided in the concerned coaching depots. Category-II rakes essentially would 
be coaching stock and would require maintenance in pit lines. 
5.17 The operator shall charge his customers for rail haulage, terminal handling, 
ground rent etc. on a market determined basis and railways shall not exercise 
any control over such pricing. 

Click here to read complete notification
For more details click here or visit http://www.indianrailways.gov.in 

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