The Integral Coach Factory’s (ICF) project Train 20 has hit a roadblock even before it started. One of the two flagship projects of ICF, T-20, has evoked hardly any interest from train manufacturers. Only one firm has shown interest to partner with ICF and produce the state-of-art trains so far.

A consortium of Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives, a railway vendor which supplies three-phase propulsion equipment to Indian Railways, and a Switzerland-based Stadler Rail was the lone participant in the global tender floated in November 2017, a highly placed ICF officer said. The ICF had invited tenders for the Rs 2,700-crore project on February 6 after postponing it as some firms had sought additional time late last year, the officer told DT Next. 

The Union Railway Ministry had announced that ICF would partner with international train majors and manufacture 13 fully air-conditioned sleeper rakes for overnight AC sleeper trains. 

The tender was invited for design, manufacture and supply  of 13 rakes. As per the project plan, nine rakes would be imported before the end of 2020 (which gives the project the name Train 20) and indigenous production of the remaining rakes would start at ICF in 2021. 

Curiously, big players in train manufacturing sector like Siemens, Spain based Talco and Bombardier had enquired and shown interest to participate in the bids earlier. “We thought at least a couple of firms would respond to the tender. But only one turned up,” the officer said. 

Another source in ICF said that lack of interest by manufacturers could delay the project up to three months, if they call for fresh tenders to finalise the manufacturer. Meanwhile, officials said that they can take a call on finalising or floating fresh tender in 15- 20 days.