Indian Railways will examine whether there can be higher indigenous content in the Vande Bharat trains — code named Train 18 – as it looks to issue a fresh tender within a week for procurement of these trains, from the present requirement level of 50 per cent.

Adding another dimension for cancelling the tender for this trainset, a Railway Board official said the new tender is being issued because some of companies had revealed their financial bid details in the technical stage itself.

The Railways had said that fresh tenders will be invited as per revised public procurement (preference to Make in India) Order. Incidentally, China-based CRRC was the only foreign shortlisted bidder for this project.

While evaluating the technical bids of trainset tenders, the tender committee has noticed that some of the details of financial offers have been revealed in the technical bids stage, something that should not have been done.

To maintain complete transparency, tender committee – comprising four officials — has recommended to cancel this tender and invite fresh tenders. The tender accepting authority — General Manager Integral Coach Factory — has accepted the recommendations of the committee, the Railways added.

Time for production of these coaches will be compressed and they will be manufactured in three production units of the Indian Railways — Integral Coach factory, Modern Coach Factory and Rail Coach Factory.

While increasing the local content in the train — which was entirely made locally, the Railways will also attempt to increase the competition at domestic level.

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