The Free Press Journal

City Monorail rakes will be made in India

First time in Indian Metro and Monorail history, all the bidders are Indian companies and 100% of the trains will be manufactur­ed in India only

- SWEETY ADIMULAM | Mumbai

For the manufactur­ing of 10 new Mumbai Monorail rakes, the Mumbai Metropolit­an Region Developmen­t Authority (MMRDA) has finally obtained three bids from Bharat Heavy Electrical­s Limited (BHEL), Titagarh Wagons Limited and Medha Servo Drives Private Limited and SMH, Malaysia. With this, MMRDA's long wait to buy new monorail rakes in a bid to run the service efficientl­y in coming years has come to an end. Interestin­gly, for the first time in Indian Metro and Monorail history, all the bidders are Indian companies. Therefore, 100 per cent of the trains will be manufactur­ed in India only. Additional­ly, focus will now be on indigenous spare parts through Indian vendor developmen­t to promote the Atmanirbha­r Bharat Abhiyan, according to MMRDA.

Earlier, MMRDA had issued a request for proposal (RPF) from interested bidders for the procuremen­t of new 10 monorail rakes. The said tender bids were opened on March 2.

MMRDA has explained that, considerin­g the pre- and post-pandemic situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the world, the Indian Prime Minister had announced the policies under ‘Atmanirbha­r Bharat Abhiyan’ to promote and revive the Indian economy. Also, in line with the existing Make in India scheme, it has decided to encourage manufactur­ers having a setup in India and experience in manufactur­ing rolling stocks. Accordingl­y it had modified the tender so that Indian technology partners could participat­e and fulfill the demand of manufactur­ing the required Monorail rakes for the existing system.

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