Team News Riveting
The Indian Railways had cancelled the tender floated for manufacturing 44 semi high-speed Vande Bharat trains.
The development had resulted in “derailing” China’s plan to enter into Indian Railways facility. Chinese state-owned CRRC Corporation, in a joint venture with an Indian firm, was among six companies in the race to bag Rs 1,500-crore Vande Bharat train project.
Interestingly, Chinese firm was the only major global player that expressed interest to invest in India’s prestigious train project launched by the Indian Railways to introduce world-class service for passengers.
China-based CRRC Yongji Electric formed a joint venture with a Gurugram-based company and participated in the tender in the name of new entity called CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited.
The tender was floated on December, 22 2019 by the Integral Coach Factory at Chennai. It was opened on 11 July. This was the third time tender was invited Vande Bharat trains, also known as Train 18, as the first lot of product was mired in controversy.
“Fresh tender will be floated within a week as per Revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order,” Railways said in the tweet. The Railways hinted giving indigenous look to the project.
In fact, the two Vande Bharat trains currently in operation had been manufactured indigenously at ICF. The trains are plying on Delhi-Varanasi and Delhi-Katra routes.
The first 16-coach Vande Bharat Express, the locomotive-less train between Delhi and Varanasi was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 February.
The train is equipped with top notch facilities, such as automatic doors, wi-fi availability and CCTV cameras and many other advanced features. It is expected to replace the Shatabdi service gradually.
