Indian Railways Adds Three-Year Delay to Make-In-India Vande Bharat Trainset, Then Hands Contract to Original Supplier

UPDATED: Official Statement Linked Below

After several delays and cancellations, Indian Railways has finally announced the award the contract for 44 Vande Bharat trainsets.

This was announced by IR in a tweet late last night.

Indian Railways has awarded the work of design and manufacturing of propulsion, control & other equipments for making 44 rakes (16 car each) of ‘Vande Bharat’ type train sets.

This project will be completed under ‘Make in India’ policy with domestic content of 90 %

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) January 21, 2021

The tweet did not mention the winning bidder. According to a PTI report, Hyderabad based Medha Servo Drives was the winner of the contract.

UPDATE: See Railway Ministry Official Statement on Vande Bharat Tender Award

Bids were invited in September 2020. More details on the tender here.

Going by the schedule provided for in the tender, it seems unlikely that a new Train-18 / Vande Bharat rake will roll out before mid-2023. Delivery of all 44 rakes from the three coach manufacturing facilities of ICF, RCF and MCF will not be complete before the end of 2024 assuming timelines are met.

Train–18 was an ambitious in-house development project to build a brand new 160-180 kmph fit trainset from scratch in-house. Work was done at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. Components and know-how from Indian and international suppliers were integrated.

Hyderabad based Medha Servo Drives was a key supplier of propulsion equipment for the project.

The first prototype was completed in late 2018. Speed and safety trials were conducted in a compressed schedule. The first prototype was inducted into commercial service in February 2019 between Delhi and Varanasi.

Departmental Fights, Controversies, Delays and China

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However, inter-departmental feuds led to very public controversies and media leaks aimed at discrediting the design. Differences on overhead cabling and other issues turned into squabbles that were not sorted out by top officials.

To compete with the trainset concept, the Push-Pull concept was also proposed by one of the feuding departments. Several premium trains were expected to be switched to Push-Pull. However, only one train continues to run with this configuration today, with doubts being raised on the operational feasibility of having one loco at each end of a conventional rake.

Vigilance cases were also filed against officials leading the project. These cases were quietly withdrawn in 2020. It is not clear if any disciplinary action was taken against any party in the matter.

However, the damage was done. 640 coaches (40 trainsets) were to be built by the end of FY 2022. Only two prototypes were built before Indian Railways shelved the plans and decided to call for a fresh tender.

Bids were invited in December 2019, after months of delays. However, the process was again scuttled in August 2020, allegedly because of improperly submitted documents. Fresh bids were invited in September 2020, resulting in the contract finally being awarded to Medha Servo Drives, the original vendor of propulsion equipment for the two prototypes.

End of Train-20

Controversies surrounding the Train-18 project also claimed another victim. The higher speed, lighter aluminium bodied Train-20 was quietly shelved and no longer seems to be on the design roadmap for Indian Railways.