Indian Railways to Procure 44 rakes of Vande Bharat Trains from ICF

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the maiden run of the Vande Bharat train set on New Delhi -Varanasi route on February 15, 2019. The second such Train set service between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra was flagged off by Home Minister Amit Shah on October 3, 2019.

As part of the continuing initiative of Make in India, the Integral Coach Factory at Chennai on December 22, 2019, invited tenders for supply of electrical equipment and other items for 44 Train sets of 16 coaches each. The procurement process promotes transparency, accountability, and speed of delivery. It ensures compliance with RDSO specifications and vendor neutrality to allow maximum potential bidders to ensure competitive rates.

This is an invitation for two packet Global Competitive bids to procure 3 Phase propulsion equipment (electrics) with passenger and operator related peripheral items suitable for maximum service speed 160 kmph ith 50 % powering (8 Motor Coaches out of 16 cars in the formation as per clause no. 1.3.12 of RDSO Specification). Bids can be submitted till 1415 hrs on March 24, 2020. A Pre-bid conference will be held on January 23, 2020, at 10.30 Hrs. at the meeting room at the Design & Development Building, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, according to a PIB release.

In order to improve upon the passenger service throughput by way of higher acceleration/ deceleration and reduction in turnaround time, Indian Railways have planned to introduce passenger train sets with distributed powering, working on 25000 V single phase 50 Hz OHE system. This project is driven by corporate mission of providing semi high speed trains with service speed of 160 KMPH having world class technology and passenger amenities.

All coaches in Train set will be Chair Car type for day travel.  All the Train sets will be provided with cab AC in DTCs , above roof HT equipment, 25 KV Roof through HT cable assembly with associated accessories like insulators, jumper cables etc, fully air-conditioned passenger compartment with vestibule arrangement, automatic plug doors with retractable footsteps, automatic intercommunication door, PAPIS consisting of in coach displays, speakers, side destination boards etc, luggage racks with reading lamps, direct lighting (for passengers) and diffused lighting (for luggage racks), continuous LED light fixtures, modular pantry equipment and GPS antenna in all coaches, Mobile/laptop charging sockets in the passenger seats, CCTVs and Emergency talk back units with networking system in all coaches.

The tender will be two packet single stage bid, where the bidder has to submit electronic bids for the technical and financial bid simultaneously. The technical bid will be opened first and the offers found eligible will be categorised as qualified. The offer not complying with the essential technical and commercial requirement of the tender will be declared as in- eligible for award of contract.

The revised specification takes care of the improvements pointed out by Chief Commissioner for Railway Safety in the prototype rake and will provide more reliable service along with ease of operations and improved passenger comfort. These optimized train sets will also be suitable for operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the electrics will be tested for continuous operations at 160 kmph.