The Railways on Monday floated a revised tender for 44 Vande Bharat train sets, increasing the requirement for indigenous content to 75%.
The Railways said this was now a domestic tender and only companies registered in India could apply and would have to quote in Indian rupee. The earlier “global tender”, for which CRRC Pioneer Electric, in which China’s CRRC is a joint partner, was among the six bidders, was cancelled last month to “maintain transparency”.
The requirement for domestic content in the new tender has been increased from 50 to 75%. “The revised tender is in line with the Government of India’s preference for Make in India policy, the minimum local content percentage has been revised to 75%,” the Railways said.
Revised norms
It added that this is the first big tender under revised DPIIT norms of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. “This tender is now a domestic tender. It will be a local [indigenous] tender in which a two-stage reverse auction will take place.”
The tender for three-phase propulsion, control and other equipment along with bogies for train sets, will be opened on November 17, and a pre-bid meeting will be held on September 29. The train sets will be manufactured at all three production units of the Railways — ICF, Chennai; MCF, Raebareli and RCF, Kapurthala.
The other bidders in the earlier tender included PSU BHEL, Hyderabad-based Medha Group, Himachal Pradesh-based Electrowaves Electronic, Powernetics Equipments and Bharat Industries. After cancelling the tender, the Railways had said the decision was made to maintain transparency as some bidders had revealed financial details of their offer ahead of time, even before clearing the technical evaluation.
