Railways issues revised tender for the manufacture of 44 Vande Bharat trains

The tender is for three phases of the project: propulsion, control and other equipment along with bogies for the trains. It has been uploaded to www.ireps.gov.in.

The new tender is a “national” tender and only companies registered in India can apply.

“The revised tender is in line with the Government of India’s preference for the Make In India policy,” added a statement.

Last month, the national carrier canceled the tenders for 44 sets of Vande Bharat trains and invited new tenders under the revised public procurement to maintain full transparency.

According to the statement, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai had canceled the previous tender, which was launched on December 22, 2019 and opened on July 10, 2020. Reports had said that a decision was made to issue the new tenders. months after a Chinese joint venture emerged as the sole foreign bidder for the global tender submitted to manufacture 44 rakes for the Vande Bharat trains.

“When evaluating the technical bids for the tenders, the Tender Committee had noted that some of the details of the financial offers had been disclosed in the first package, which was not acceptable. The new public procurement guidelines will be strictly followed and will be will prefer the ‘Make in India’ initiative. To maintain full transparency, the Committee recommended canceling the tender and inviting new tenders, “added the statement quoted by Vinod Kumar, president of the Board of Railways (CRB).

Furthermore, he quoted the CRB as saying: “The railway is trying to manufacture this project as soon as possible. But, due to some technical problems, this project has been delayed. In a new tender, the timeline for the manufacture of train sets it will be compressed. ” and added that as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, it would increase indigenous content from the current level of 50% to a higher level.

In addition, the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Domestic Trade (DPIIT) had revised the public procurement order issued on June 4 to encourage domestic manufacturing. Offers are due to open on November 17. A pre-bid conference will be held on September 29 and a two-stage reverse auction will take place, the ministry reported.

The trains will be manufactured in three coach manufacturing units, primarily, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai; Railway Car Factory, Kapurthala and Modern Car Factory, Raebareli.