NEW DELHI: Only three companies – BHEL, Medha Servo Drives and CRRC-Pioneer Electric India – have submitted bids for the manufacturing of 44 rakes of Vande Bharat type trainsets. Sources said railways will start evaluation of the technical bids for this nearly Rs 1,800 crore contract.
Ministry sources said this is an indigenous tender with stipulation of minimum local content of 75%. They said only after scrutiny of these technical bids, it will be finalised who all will be allowed to put financial bids or participate in the reverse auction. While industry sources said that for reverse auction participation of more than three bidders is required, ministry officials said it’s up to the committee which has been set up for processing the bids to take the final call.
In the reverse auction model, the qualified bidders are allowed to quote their prices online and it’s live. “The price discovery is better in the reverse auction model,” said a senior official of an infrastructure ministry.
While BHEL is a government PSU and Medha is an India firm, the CRRC-Pioneer Electric India is a joint venture between Beijing based CRRC Yongji Electric Ltd and India’s Pioneer Fil-Med Ltd, which has its plant in Haryana. It had applied for registration here after it was made mandatory for companies with beneficial ownership in countries sharing land borders with India to get registered for participating in public procurement contracts.
The fate of the company’s bid will be known after the evaluation.
Meanwhile, sources in the railway ministry said any company whether stand alone or joint venture, which is not eligible as per the well laid down norms of indigenous tenders will be automatically eliminated. They added the bid evaluation process is still to be undertaken.
They said the eligibility for a bidder from a country which shares a land border with India to participate in the tender shall be as per public procurement orders of the finance ministry and the tenderers have to submit a required certificate, failing which the offer will be summarily rejected.