The Railway Board will issue fresh tenders for manufacture of 44 sets of Vande Bharat train-sets within next week according to V K Yadav Chairman Railway Board.
Speaking to the media over video-conferencing Yadav said that fresh tenders will be as per the revised public procurement order with preference being given to ‘Make in India’.
As a result of this fresh timetable for manufacturing these train–sets, the loss of three months will be compensated; Yadav observed adding that there will be full transparency in the tendering process.
Vande Bharat Tender Cancelled Due to Bidder Errors
Yadav said that the earlier tender was scrapped on the recommendations of the 4-member Tender Evaluation Committee.
According to him the process entailed submission of a two-packet bid, one relating to technical specifications and the other on financials.
Financial bids were opened only for those entities which were short listed after opening of the technical bid. However, the committee saw that financial offers had been revealed in the technical bids of some entities.
Hence, the committee recommended cancellation of bids and calling for new tenders, which was accepted by the Tender Accepting Authority (GM ICF).
Increased Indigenous Content, Manufacture at ICF, MCF and RCF
Yadav said that the proportion of indigenous content in the train-sets will be increased from the existing 50 per cent as per the Centre’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
These train sets will be manufactured at three different locations- Integral Coach Factory Chennai, Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala and the Modern Coach Factory, Raibareli.
Though three months have been lost due to Covid-19 and cancellation of the previous tender, Yadav said, adding that the timeline for making these train-sets will be compressed.
Vande Bharat Express Trainset Manufacturing Tender Timeline
Date of floating: December 22, 2019
Pre-Bid: January 23, 2020
Closing: February 7, 2020
Clarification of issues: March 10, 2020
Revised tender opening date: May 11, 2020, which was again revised to July 11, 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic
Tender finally opened: July 10, 2020
Bids received: Six
Tender cancelled: August 21, 2020
