Future coaches of Mumbai Monorail will manufacture in India

Mumbai, India (Urban Transport News): The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) informed that the authority received three bids for the supply of additional 10 rakes for the Mumbai Monorail against the request for proposals (RFP) called in August last year.

MMRDA has opened technical bids on 2nd March 2021. The three Indian firms have shown their interest to manufacture and supply additional 10 rakes to MMRDA for the Mumbai Monorail. The name of bidders are as under:-

• Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL)
• Titagarh Wagons Ltd
• Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd – SMH (Malaysia) JV

The scope of work of this contract package (MONORS3) includes Design, Manufacture, Supply, Testing and Commissioning Of 10 Nos. of Monorail Train Sets of 4 Cars each and Training Of Personnel for Mumbai Monorail Project. The estimated cost of this package is Rs 546 crore.

According to the terms of the RFP notice, the contractor will have to use 50% local content in the manufacturing process of new rakes in accordance with the Make in India policy of Government of India. MMRDA said that due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative to promote and revive the Indian economy. Also, in line with the existing Make in India scheme, 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.

Claus No 1.2 of Instructions to Bidders states,

Pursuant to the policy of the Government of India, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has issued Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017- revision‟ vide No. P-45021/2/2017-B.E.-II dated 4th June 2020; an office Memorandum No. F. No. K14011/09/2014/UT-II/MRTS-Coord dated 14th November 2017 and Mandatory conditions/guidelines applicable to Metro Rail Projects vide MOHUA letter no. K – 14011 /
26 / 2018 – MRTS-II dated 27.07.2018 (placed as Annexure-I). With respect to the above policy, the minimum local content in procurement value of the Rolling Stock Tender MONORS3 shall be 50%. The Bidder shall be required to provide a self-certificate or a certificate from the statutory auditor or cost auditor giving the percentage only of minimum local content and this self-certificate or certificate from the statutory auditor or cost auditor shall be enclosed with the bid uploaded in the technical section of the e-tender portal. Only percentage values shall be mentioned in these certificates and no financial values shall be mentioned.

Now the bids have been sent for technical evaluation. If everything found Okay, then MMRDA will open the financial bids.

The existing rakes were built by Malaysian company Scomi Engineering Bhd which was concessionaire of Mumbai Monorail with L&T. However, MMRDA had terminated the contract in December 2018 citing poor performance by the consortium. 

At present, the Mumbai Monorail is operational on a 19-km corridor between Chembur to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk.