Vande Bharat Sleeper Edition: Railways Inks Manufacturing-Cum-Maintenance Agreement With Russian Major-TMH For Manufacturing Of 120 Trains

Firming up the deal, Indian Railways on Wednesday (27 September) signed the manufacturing-cum-maintenance agreement (MCMA) with the Russian rolling stock giant TMH for manufacturing of the long-awaited sleeper edition Vande Bharat train.

The signing of MCMA with a leading Russian company assumes significance as the United States has renewed sanctions against Russia.

The MCMA paves the way for manufacturing of 120 Vande Bharat trains with sleeper coaches with TMH as technology partner for the project.

The signing of MCMA was delayed due to the difference of opinions over the shareholding pattern between TMH and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the Railways' public sector unit (PSU).

However, ending the days of uncertainty and speculations, RVNL agreed to be junior partner as per the original agreement and came on board for going ahead with the Rs 35,000 crore Vande Bharat project in July.

It was followed by further action in which TMH had deposited the mandatory Rs 200 crore as performance bank guarantee in August.

According to the statement of the Russian company, Indian Railways and Kinet Railway Solutions signed the MCMA for the project.

The agreement for 120 trains entails creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) 'Kinet Railway Solutions Limited' — which will manufacture, supply and maintain Vande Bharat trainsets operated by Indian Railways.

Kinet Railway Solutions Ltd is a joint venture between TMH, RVNL and Locomotive Electronic Systems (LES), a Russian equipment supplier.

Kinet will be supplying 120 Vande Bharat electric passenger sleeper trainsets within the stipulated time frame and will also be running maintenance services of these train sets for 35 years.

The shareholder agreement for the joint venture was already signed for the manufacture of sleeper-class Vande Bharat trains.

According to the shareholding pattern, TMH subsidiary-Metrowagonmash has 70 per cent, RVNL has 25 per cent and LES has 5 per cent shares in the joint venture.

Though BEML is producing the first sleeper Vande Bharat trainset for Integral Coach Factory (ICF), the Russian major TMH is free to design its own sleeper design.

The Railways has awarded a contract for manufacturing of 200 sleeper Vande Bharat trains out of which TMH-RVNL will make 120 and Titagarh-BHEL will make 80 such trains. The consortium of TMH-RVNL would manufacture 120 Vande Bharat trains at the railway facilities at Latur.

Currently, the Vande Bharat trains with seating facilities are being produced at ICF. There will be no Vande Bharat trains with seating facility after 75 of such trains.

ICF had given the order for manufacturing of 10 Vande Bharat trains with sleeper facilities to the state-owned BEML.

However, the Railways maintains that the design for sleeper Vande Bharat finalised by BEML will not be binding for the TMH-RVNL consortium. They can have their own design if they want. But these designs are to be approved by the RDSO.

The Vande Bharat sleeper train is expected to be of superior quality as compared to Rajdhani trains in terms of features, average speed, and maintenance.

According to the Railways, the new sleeper variant of the Vande Bharat Express, promises faster and more comfortable overnight travel for passengers.