Indian Railways Awards Rs 2,211 Crore Contract For Vande Bharat Trains' Propulsion, Control Systems To Hyderabad-Based Firm

The Indian Railways has awarded a contract of Rs 2,211 crore to design and manufacture propulsion, control and other equipment of 44 Vande Bharat-type train sets to Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, a Ministry spokesperson said on Friday (22 January).

"The Railways has awarded the work of design and manufacture of propulsion, control and other equipment to make 44 rakes (16 car each) of Vande Bharat-type train sets," a Ministry tweet said.

It said that the project will be completed under the 'Make in India' policy with domestic content of 90 per cent.

In August last year, the railways had cancelled the tender for the manufacturing of 44 rakes of 'Train 18', re-christened as 'Vande Bharat Express', after a Chinese joint venture company CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited became the only foreign bidder among six contenders to manufacture semi-high speed trains. The Ministry again floated the tender in September 2020.

According to Ministry officials, the train sets will be manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Tamil Nadu's Chennai, Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala in Punjab, and the Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh.

The Railways operates two Vande Bharat Express trains -- one from New Delhi to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and another from New Delhi to Katra in Jammu and Kashmir.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)