New Delhi : The railways said on Friday it has cancelled the tender for manufacturing 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express trains, which was floated last year.
Last month, when the tender was opened, a Chinese joint venture firm — CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited — had emerged as the only foreign player among the six contenders for the supply of electrical equipment and other items for the 44 train sets of 16 coaches each.
The JV was formed between the China-based CRRC Yongji Electric Company Limited and the Gurugram-based Pioneer Fil-med Private Limited in 2015.
“Tender for manufacturing of 44 nos of semi high speed train sets (Vande Bharat) has been cancelled. Fresh tender will be floated within a week as per Revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order,” the Railway Ministry said in a tweet.
The national transporter, however, did not specify the reason behind the cancellation of the tender.
Sources said the railways is keen to ensure that a purely domestic entity bags the tender and once it was felt that the Chinese JV was a frontrunner for the project, it was scrapped.
Indian Railways” Integral Coach Factory in Chennai had floated the tender for manufacturing 44 rakes or train sets of semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express trains on July 10.
The other five bidders were the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, the Bharat Industries, Sangrur, the Electrowaves Electronics (P) Limited, the MEDHA Servo Drives Private Limited and the Powernetics Equipment India Private Limited, according to the Railway Ministry.
Earlier, when India and China were involved in a tense border stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, the railways had scrapped a tender for thermal cameras meant for “COVID-19 surveillance” after Indian firms alleged that the tender specifications favoured a Chinese company.
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