Rail Vikas Nigam Consortium Emerges Lowest Bidder For 200 Vande Bharat Trains

The consortium of Russia's CJSC Transmashholding and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. emerged as the lowest bidder for a Rs 58,000-crore contract to manufacture and maintain 200 Vande Bharat trains, officials said.

The second lowest bidder was the consortium of state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. and Titagarh Wagons, they said, adding that it will be given a chance to match the lowest bid to bag a share of the tender.

Sources said the consortium of TMH and Indian public sector unit RVNL has bid Rs 120 crore per train set, less than the cost of the last Vande Bharat trains manufactured by ICF-Chennai at Rs 128 crore a set.

TMH-Rail Vikas Nigam outbid BHEL-Titagarh Wagons that had quoted Rs 140 crore a train set, they said, indicating that the Russian company is keen to enter the Indian market and thus, the low bid.

French railway major Alstom, the Medha-Stadler consortium between the Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail and Hyderabad-based Media Servo Drives and Siemens along with BEML were the other players in the fray for the tender.

The contract, which is worth Rs 58,000 crore, is to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat trains and maintain them for the next 35 years.

Whoever emerges as the new manufacturer, will produce the trains using the present technology developed by the railways, railway staff and its factories, senior officials said.

According to the tender document, the selected bidder will manufacture 200 train sets of sleeper version of 16 coaches each at the railway factory in Latur in Maharashtra and the ICF in Chennai.

Under the bid conditions, manufacture, supply and maintenance of 120 trains would be awarded to the lowest bidder (L1). These would be manufactured at the Latur facility of the Indian Railways.

The remaining 80 trains would be manufactured at the Chennai facility and awarded to the second lowest (L2) bidder, provided the price offered by the L1 is matched.

On the refusal of the L2 bidder to take up the contract, it would be offered to the third lowest bidder. However, if none of the bidders are ready to match the bid made by the L1 bidder, the entire contract would be awarded to them.

The document also said the supplied trains would be maintained at six to eight train depots in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Jodhpur, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

The Vande Bharat is a semi-high-speed train consisting of 16 self-propelled coaches, which eliminate the need for a separate locomotive. This system, known as distributed traction power, has become increasingly popular worldwide for passenger operations.

Distributed power enables faster acceleration and deceleration compared to locomotive-hauled trains, which take longer to reach top speed or gradually slow down.

These trains feature improvements such as enhanced seating, an anti-bacterial system in the air conditioning, and the ability to accelerate to 160 km/h in just 140 seconds.

The central government had in the Budget for 2021-22 set an ambitious target to manufacture 400 Vande Bharat trains in India by the end of 2024-25.