Railway's trainset re-tendering in advanced stage

The re-tendering process for the yet-to-take-off trainset programme of the railways is now at an advanced stage and it should be ready in a few months. Speaking to dna, Anil Saxena, chief spokesperson of railway ministry, confirmed the development. "The re-tendering is now with the railway board and it is in an advanced stage," said Saxena.

The first tendering process to procure trainsets started in the later months of 2015, and though five consortia qualified for the process, none of them submitted financial bids leading to the collapse of the procurement process.

These five consortia were Alstom and BEML, CAF and Bombardier, Hitachi and Ansaldo, Kawasaki, Toshiba and BHEL, and the fifth, Siemens. According to officials, one of the big misgivings of several firms was that the procurement orders aren't big enough for them to invest heavily to create manufacturing infrastructure in the country and to build these trainsets in India. Officials said the procurement orders will also see an upward revision to the tune of 30 per cent.

The railway ministry wants to move quickly on this issue because as per its own terms and conditions, it would take two years before the chosen trainset-manufacturing firm can deliver its first set of prototype trainset. While the first two trainsets can be imported, the rest will have to be made in India in partnership with the railways.

"That would mean that even if we go full throttle now, the trainset prototype will come in by 2018 or may be slightly later, Surely, the railway ministry would want to highlight this as one of its big achievements in poll year 2019. So, speeding up the process is imperative," said a railway official.

The railway ministry has made the first move. It has already allotted Rs2,592 crore in this year's Pink Book for the 2016-17 to buy 15 trainsets to replace some of the Rajdhani and Shatbadi rakes. At current prices, a trainset would cost anything between Rs150-200 crore along with maintenance from the manufacturer for a period of seven years and technology transfer to the railways.

The railway will be buying two types of trainsets. The 20-coach ones will have sleeper arrangements while the 17-coach ones will have seating arrangements like conventional chair-car coaches.