Alstom, Russian company, others bid for Rs 50,000 crore Vande Bharat deal

France's Alstom, Russia's Metrowagonmash, and three consortia - Siemens-BEML, Stadler-Medha and Bharat Heavy Electricals-Titagarh Wagons - have bid for the manufacture, supply and maintenance of 200 Vande Bharat trains to the railways at a cost estimated around ₹50,000 crore, people privy to the development told ET.

According to a government official, the bids were opened on Wednesday. "These bids will be evaluated and awarded over the coming two months," the official added.

Selected bidders will be listed as technology partners and need to supply the trains with each having 16 sleeper cars. The trains are to be built at Marathwada Rail Coach Factory in Latur and Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. As part of the contract, the suppliers will have to upgrade the manufacturing facilities where these trains will be built and the depots where they will be maintained. The original contract value was projected at ₹26,000 crore.

The trains must be delivered over 3-5 years while their maintenance will have to be undertaken for 35 years.

"Supplied trains shall be maintained by the selected bidders at about 5-6 government depots located in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Jodhpur," another official said, adding that the selected bidder should supply the first prototype train within two years.Under the bid conditions, manufacture, supply and maintenance of 120 trains would be awarded to the lowest bidder (L1). These would be manufactured at the Latur facility of the Indian Railways.

The balance 80 trains would be manufactured at the Chennai facility and awarded to the second lowest (L2) bidder, provided the price offered by the L1 was matched. If the L2 bidder refused to take up the contract, the same offer would be extended to the third lowest bidder.The contract for the remaining trains would be awarded to the L1 bidder if the other bidders did not agree to match the lowest price offered.

ET had reported last week that more passenger amenities in Vande Bharat trains have been in the works. The predominantly chair-car coaches of the indigenously developed Vande Bharat trains will soon be supplemented by sleeper coaches.

"The design of sleeper coaches for Vande Bharat trains has been finalised and first such coaches will be rolled out by the first three months of the calendar year 2024," the second official said, adding that they would be deployed on overnight routes.