Vande Bharat Express 2020: We Won’t Accept Chinese Trains!
Vande Bharat Express 2020: No Chinese Train We Accept!
We don’t want any Chinese participation in Vande Bharat Express trains! Piyush Goyal-led Railway Ministry has abandoned the proposal of a Chinese Joint Venture firm. The proposal was for 44 semi-high speed train sets project and learned Financial Express Online.
The coaches of the future Train-18 train sets will be Chair Car type and specially outlined for day travel. These trains will provide several other facilities like CCTVs, speakers, automatic plug doors with retractable footsteps, GPS antennas, in-coach displays, mobile/laptop charging sockets, modular pantry equipment, and luggage racks with reading lamps, etc.
Railway Ministry cancelled the tender of a Chinese Joint Venture firm
Piyush Goyal-led Railway Ministry has abandoned the proposal tender of a Chinese Joint Venture firm for 44 semi-high speed train sets project. Chinese state-owned CRRC Corporation has developed as the single foreign bidder in the tender that has been drifted by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. Six contenders include Electrowaves Electronic, Mumbai-based Powernetics Equipments, Bharat Heavy Electricals, and Hyderabad-based Medha Group.
Sources revealed that the attempt by China’s CRRC is supposed to be abandoned based on a clause in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s ‘Make in India’ policy. “If a Nodal Ministry is convinced that Indian suppliers of an item are not allowed to fight in acquirement by any foreign government, it may, if it considers appropriate, limit or prohibit tenders from that country from the ability for procurement of that item and other items associating to that Nodal Ministry,” the clause in Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017 reads.
According to the policy, the tender may be estimated from a country based on specific criteria: “a majority of shareholding or effective control of the object is executed from that country.” CRRC Pioneer Electric is a joint venture of Indian-based company and CRRC Corporation.
Chinese owned CRRC Corporation has emerged as a contender for the proposal for obtaining impulsion systems. According to officials recited in a PTI statement, the current bid for 44 Vande Bharat Express 18 trains sets a plan worth over various Rs 1,500 crore. This hints that the first Vande Bharat Express that was started last year at the cost of Rs 100, has a Rs 35 crore propulsion system segment.
This present tender for the project was floated in the past year on December 22 and was started on Friday. This tender is the third tender that has been floated for these ‘Make in India’ trains. The drifted bid was for the supply of electrical devices along with other parts for 44 Vande Bharat Express train sets that consist of 16 coaches.
According to the statement, the first tender was for as many as 43 sets. The second tender drifted for a total of 37 Train-18 propulsion systems. However, it was canceled, and surprisingly, significant firms such as Mitsubishi, CAF, Alstom, Bombardier, Siemens, and Talgo did not engage in the tenders.
Following a delay with China, a Rs 471-crore signaling and telecommunication work agreement for a 417-km stretch on the Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay part by a Chinese firm was canceled by Indian Railways. The national transporter also abandoned a tender for the thermal screening cameras after merchants from India complained of the proposal document, which, according to them, was supporting the Chinese.
According to administrators, it can take at least two-and-a-half years to produce the next Vande Bharat Express. There is going to be a delay in the target set by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who intended to provide 160 coaches in the year 2019-20, as many as 240 coaches in the year 2020-21 and 240 of coaches in the year 2021-22 at the ICF, Chennai.
The reason behind the abandon
The Galwan valley conflict a few days back caused the boycott China movement. The India-China border tension launched a trade war against China by India. The Indian government banned 59 apps and supported the boycott china movement.
