Key Points :
- Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, is an Indian higher-speed rail intercity electric multiple unit. It was designed and built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Perambur, Chennai under the Indian government’s Make in India initiative over a span of 18 months.
- The Railway Ministry cancelled a global tender which was released the month before, as it emerged that among the six candidates that had submitted financial bids was CRRC Pioneer Electric, in which China’s CRRC is a joint partner.
- The new bid is in focus with the Government’s Make in India policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had motioned off the maiden run of a Vande Bharat train on the New Delhi-Varanasi route on February 15, 2019.The second such train service between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra was flagged off by Home Minister Amit Shah on October 3, 2019.
Now, the Railways has released a new “domestic” tender for manufacturing 44 semi-high speed “Vande Bharat” train sets, in which only India-registered companies can take part and the minimum local component percentage required is 75, officials said on Monday. The new broadcasting of tender comes after, the Railways in August had cancelled a global tender which was released the month before, as it emerged that among the six candidates that had submitted financial bids was CRRC Pioneer Electric, in which China’s CRRC is a joint partner.
“The revised tender is in line with the Government of India’s preference for the Make In India policy,” a Railway spokesperson said.
“The minimum local content percentage has been revised to 75%. It is the first big tender under revised DPIIT norms of Atma Nirbhar Bharat having at least 75 % domestic components. This tender is now a domestic tender. It shall be local (indigenous) tender in which a two-stage reverse auction shall take place,” the spokesperson added.
The government had to jettison three global tenders for the project earlier .The August revocation had come in the scrim of rising India-China tensions. The Railways had then said a fresh bid will be put out as per the revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order.
The announcement of the bid was done by the Ministry of railways on their Twitter account which stated,
“Indian Railways floats the revised tender of semi high speed 44 Vande Bharat trains sets”.
Indian Railways floats the revised tender of semi high speed 44 Vande Bharat trains sets.
The tender is for '3 phase Propulsion, Control and other Equipment along with Bogies for Trains Sets"
Tender has been uploaded on https://t.co/UQNBvqcAQbhttps://t.co/n3uySOkTCU pic.twitter.com/eXjwTLNJr7
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) September 21, 2020
The tender is for ‘3 phase Propulsion, Control and other Equipment along with Bogies for Trains Sets”
Tender has been uploaded on
Talking about the tender , it states that it is for three-phase propulsion, control and other equipment along with the bogies for the 44 train sets.The ministry also said a pre-bid meeting for the tender will be held on September 29 and the tender will be declared open as of November 17.The bid document clearly illustrates that the train sets shall be manufactured at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai; Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala; Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.
Looking at the CRRC Pioneer Electric’s website, it is a joint venture of CRRC Yongji Electric Co. Ltd — a core subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation — and India’s Pioneer Fil-Med Pvt ltd, set up in 2015.
The other bidders for the project, estimated to cost about Rs 1,500 crore, were Indian PSU Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharat Industries,the Hyderabad-based Medha Group, the Himachal Pradesh-based Electrowaves Electronic Pvt Ltd, Powernetics Equipments Pvt Ltd.Officials claimed that going by the cost of manufacturing of the first Vande Bharat Express, or Train 18, the present tender would be worth over Rs 1,500 crore. For the unversed this is not the first bid which the Railways have cancelled. Earlier, the Railways had also annuled a Rs 471-crore signalling contract of another Chinese firm and scrapped a tender for thermal cameras as again a Chinese firm was seen as a front-runner.
