The Indian Railways reportedly cancelled its Rs 30,000-crore tender for the manufacturing and maintenance of Vande Bharat Express - a semi-high-speed train service. According to the media reports, the railways authorities annulled a tender for 100 aluminium-body Vande Bharat trains to Alstom India.
Several media reports confirmed the development citing sources in Alstom India. The company reportedly said that while Indian Railways has cancelled the order, the firm is well-positioned to support the realisation of the vision in the future, if the need arises.
The tender committee and Alstom India failed to reach an agreement on the rate for per train set. The media reports suggested that Indian Railways found that the company’s bidding price of Rs 150.9 crore for each train was too high. Hence, the authorities urged Alstom India to cap the rate at Rs 140 crore. But, Alstom India refused to scale down to Rs 140 core. The company wanted to seal the deal at Rs 145 crore per train.
Alstom India's bid was the lowest for the Rs 30,000-crore tender. The tender was for manufacturing all the 100 Vande Bharat rakes. The reports stated that the other bidder, a consortium comprising Swiss manufacturer Stadler Rail and Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives, offered a better price Rs 170 crore per train set.
The reports, quoting official sources, said the previous contract to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat sleeper train sets was approved at Rs 120 crore per rake. The next round of tender would be wider and we will invite multiple players, unlike the latest one that drew only two bidders, stated the report quoting an official source.
The Railways will pay the first instalment of Rs 13,000 crore to the winning bidder upon delivery of the train sets. The remainder Rs 17,000 crore would be paid for maintenance over 35 years to the company.
What is Vande Bharat Express train?
The government dedicated significant efforts towards strengthening the ‘Make in India’ campaign by introducing the idea of making India’s first indigenous semi high speed train - Vande Bharat Express. As an excellent example of the ‘Make in India’ success story, the Indian Railways launched Vande Bharat Express in 2019. The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
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