Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said the tender was cancelled because some of the bidders had revealed prices in their technical bids
The tender process for manufacturing of 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat train sets wasn't cancelled because of a Chinese company's bid, the Indian Railways has clarified.
Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said the tender was cancelled because some of the bidders had revealed prices in their technical bids.
"Some bidding companies revealed their proposed prices in qualifications stage, which is not the practice. This is one of the reasons why tender for 44 Vande Bharat trains was cancelled. The new tender will be as per Make in India guidelines and will be invited within a week," he said.
Yadav said they would examine if indigenous content could be increased from 50 percent to a higher level.
"We will incorporate changes due to the COVID-19 requirements in the trainset design. We have asked all parties involved in revealing financials in technical bids for clarification on the issue," he said.
On August 21, the Railways had cancelled a global tender for manufacturing of 44 Vande Bharat trains.
The Integral Coach Factory had floated a tender on July 10.
The production of the Vande Bharat trains has been mired in controversy even as the first Train 18 was rolled out in record time of 18 months by the Integral Coach Factory.
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