Major push to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat! Railways finalize tender for Vande Bharat Type train sets
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New Delhi, January 22: Rejecting China's proposal, Indian Railways gave a major push to the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative and finalized the tender of Vande Bharat trains for 44 rakes of 16 car each. The procurement includes 5 years comprehensive annual maintenance contract with the supplier.
The tender was finalized on Medha Servo Drives Ltd for an all-in cost of over Rs 2211 crore for 44 rakes of 16 car each. These will be manufactured at three production units of Indian Railways– 24 rakes at ICF, 10 rakes at RCF, and a balance of 10 rakes at MCF.
It was finalized on Thursday for design, development, manufacture, supply, integration, testing, and commissioning of IGBT-based three-phase propulsion, control, and other equipment.
The specifications were prepared after multiple deliberations with the industry at various levels for manufacturing the train sets indigenously. For the first time, the tender required a minimum of 75% local content requirement of the total value of the tender. This is expected to give a boost to the "AtmaNirbhar Bharat" mission.
In this tender, three bidders participated and the lowest offer was from indigenous manufacturer Medha Servo Drives Ltd who successfully met the minimum local content of 75 percent of the total value.
The delivery schedule for the supply of these rakes is – the first 2 prototype rakes will be delivered in 20 months, thereafter on successful commissioning, the firm will be delivering an average of 6 rakes per quarter. It should be noted the Railways had canceled the tender for the manufacturing of the 44 rakes of Train 18, which has been re-christened as Vande Bharat Express.
The move comes after the Chinese joint venture company CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited emerged as the only foreign bidder among the six contenders for manufacturing 44 sets of semi-high speed trains. It was a major setback for China. This was come amid when India has tightened trade ties with China after 20 Army jawans were martyred following a violent face-off at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh.