44 Vande Bharat trains: Indian Railways floats revised tender for semi-high speed train sets; details

Indian Railways to introduce more Vande Bharat trains soon! The revised tender of 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat train sets has been floated by Indian Railways. The revised tender is for 3-phase propulsion, control and other equipment along with bogies for as many as 44 Vande Bharat train sets. This tender, which has been uploaded on ireps.gov.in, is now a domestic tender. The revised tender is in line with the Modi government’s preference for ‘Make in India’ policy. In this tender, the minimum local content percentage has been revised to 75 per cent. Also, it is the first big tender under revised DPIIT norms of the Government of India’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat.

The pre-bid meeting is scheduled for 29 September 2020 and the opening date of the tender is 17 November 2020. Some of the main features of the revised tender are as follows:

• The 44 semi high speed Vande Bharat train sets shall be manufactured at Indian Railways’ Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Raebareli and Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala
• It will be local (indigenous) tender, giving a boost to ‘Make in India’
• For this, two stage, reverse auction will take place

The upcoming Train-18 or semi high speed trains will have Chair Car type coaches, specially designed for day travel. These trains will also offer many modern facilities such as mobile/laptop charging sockets, automatic plug doors with retractable footsteps, CCTVs, in-coach displays, speakers, GPS antenna, luggage racks with reading lamps, modular pantry equipment, etc. The country’s first Vande Bharat Express that was launched last year saw an expense of Rs 100 crore, of which Rs 35 crore alone was for the train’s propulsion system. Meanwhile, it is being said the present tender for 44 such kits would be worth over an amount of Rs 1,500 crore.

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Last month, in the backdrop of rising tensions between India and China, a global tender was cancelled by the national transporter that it had earlier floated after it emerged that some candidates that had also submitted prices as part of the bids.