Snapshot
The railways is involving more players due to the magnitude of the task of manufacturing 502 Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
Expediting the new-age train delivery, Indian Railways has awarded the Rs 2,600 crore contract to seven players including Medha, Bombardier and Siemens for manufacturing 58 Vande Bharat trains at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai (ICF), Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala (RCF) and Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Rae Bareli.
According to the tender committee’s decision, Medha would make 26 Vande Bharat trainsets, followed by 16 for Bombardier and nine for Siemens.
While BHEL has been given the contract for four Vande Bharat trainsets, Saini, Titagarh and CGL have been assigned to manufacture one each as developmental order.
Though the capacity of Siemens, Bombardier and Medha for manufacturing the Vande Bharat trainsets is well known, the same is not much known about BHEL, Saini, CGL and Titagarh.
Since the railways has a mega task of manufacturing a total 502 Vande Bharat trains in the next three years, it has decided to involve more players in the sector.
In order to develop more sources to make Vande Bharat trains and make it more competitive in future, we decided to give developmental orders to these companies, said a senior Railway Ministry official.
These seven players would supply propulsion systems and electrics for manufacturing of Vande Bharat trains at ICF, MCF and RCF.
Propulsion system and electrics cost about 37 per cent of the total cost of the train.
The railways had already given a contract to Medha for manufacturing 44 Vande Bharat trains. With the work order for 58 more Vande Bharat trainsets, the railways firmed up the delivery schedule of the 102 modern trains in the coming years.
All the Vande Bharat trains are expected to replace Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi and Inter-city Express in a phased manner.