Amid India-China Standoff, Govt Set To Scrap Chinese Bid For Supplying 44 Propulsion Systems For Vande Bharat Trains

The government is likely to scrap the bid submitted by a joint venture of a Gurugram based company and China's state-backed CRRC Yongji Electric Co Ltd to supply propulsion systems for the 44 semi-high speed Train-18 (Vande Bharat Express) trainsets for the Indian Railways, reports Times of India.

The tender worth around Rs 1,500 crore was floated in December last year By the Railways' Integral Coach Factory (ICF) and was opened on Friday (10 July).

A total of six players have submitted the bids for the tender, of which the other five are all domestic players, namely, BHEL, Hyderabad based Medha Group, Parwanoo-based Electrowaves Electronic Pvt Ltd, Sangrur-based Bharat Industries and Navi Mumbai-based Powernetics Equipments Ltd.

It should be noted that despite it being a global tender, no major global player, including the two major ones which have their own production facilities in India have participated in the tender. These firms include Bombardier and Alstom.

Presently, there are two Train-18 Vande Bharat Express trains which are operating on Delhi-Varanasi and Delhi-Katra routes, both of which have been built by Chennai based Integral Coach Factory (ICF).