44 Vande Bharat Trains: Indian Railways Submits Revised Tender for Semi High Speed ​​Train Sets; details

Indian Railways will introduce more Vande Bharat trains soon! The revised tender for 44 Vande Bharat semi-high speed trains has been launched by Indian Railways. The revised tender is for three-phase propulsion, control and other equipment along with bogies for up to 44 Vande Bharat trains. This tender, which has been uploaded to ireps.gov.in, is now a national tender. The revised tender is in line with the Modi government’s preference for the “Manufacture in India” policy. In this tender, the minimum percentage of local content has been revised to 75 percent. Furthermore, it is the first major tender under the revised DPIIT rules of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat government of India.

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

• The 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured at the Indian Railways Comprehensive Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, the Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Raebareli and the Railway Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala
• It will be a local (indigenous) tender, giving a boost to ‘Make in India’
• To do this, a reverse auction will be held in two stages.

The next Train-18 or semi-high-speed trains will feature Chair Car-type coaches, specially designed for day trips. These trains will also offer many modern facilities such as mobile / laptop charging sockets, automatic plug-in doors with retractable steps, CCTV, screens on the bus, speakers, GPS antenna, luggage rack with reading lamps, modular pantry equipment, etc. The Vande Bharat Express that was launched last year had an expenditure of Rs 100 crore, of which Rs 35 crore was only for the propulsion system of the train. Meanwhile, the current tender for 44 such kits is said to be worth more than Rs 1.5 billion.

Last month, in the context of rising tensions between India and China, the domestic carrier canceled a global tender it had previously launched after it emerged that some candidates who had also submitted prices as part of the bids.