India to procure 44 Semi-High Speed Trains from Integral Coach Factory

Chennai, India (Urban Transport News): As part of the continuing Government of India's "Make in India" initiative, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Chennai has floated a tender for supply of electrical equipment and other items for 44 rakes of Semi-high speed Trainsets of 16 coaches each. The new procurement process will promote transparency, accountability and speed of delivery. It will also ensure compliance with the latest specifications of Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) and vendor neutrality to allow maximum potential bidders to ensure competitive rates.

Highlights of the procurement plan

• The tender floated by Integral Coach Factory for the supply of electrical equipment and other items for 44 Train sets of 16 coaches each.
• The procurement process will promote transparency, accountability, and the speed of delivery.
• It will ensure compliance with RDSO specifications and vendor neutrality to allow maximum potential bidders to ensure competitive rates.
• It will improve upon the passenger throughput by way of higher acceleration/ deceleration and reduction in turnaround time.
• The revised specification takes care of the improvements pointed out by Chief Commissioner for Railway Safety (CCRS) in the prototype rake and will provide more reliable service along with ease of operations and improved passenger comfort.
• The new trainsets will provide an actual saving of 20% in journey time and all equipment are suitable for flooding conditions.

Key Information

• This is an invitation for two packet Global Competitive bids to procure 3 Phase propulsion equipment (electrics) with passenger and operator related peripheral items suitable for maximum service speed 160 kmph speed with 50 % powering (8 Motor Coaches out of 16 cars in the formation as per clause no. 1.3.12 of RDSO Specification no. RDSO/PE/SPEC/EMU/0196–2019 (Rev.0).
• Bids can be submitted until 14.15 hrs on 24^th  March 2020.
• A Pre-bid conference will be held on 23/01/2020 at 10.30 Hrs. in the meeting room at the Design & Development Building, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
• The procurement shall be done in accordance with the extant  "Make in India" policy of DPIIT, Government of India.

In order to improve upon the passenger throughput by way of higher acceleration/ deceleration and reduction in turnaround time, Indian Railways have planned to introduce passenger train sets with distributed powering, working on 25000 V single phase 50 Hz OHE system. This project is driven by the corporate mission of providing semi high-speed trains with a service speed of 160 kmph having world-class technology and passenger amenities.

Train features

All coaches in Train set will be Chair Car type for day travel.  All the Train sets will be provided with cab AC in DTCs, above roof HT equipment, 25 KV Roof through HT cable assembly with associated accessories like insulators, jumper cables etc, fully air-conditioned passenger compartment with vestibule arrangement, automatic plug doors with retractable footsteps, automatic intercommunication door, PAPIS consisting of in coach displays, speakers, side destination boards etc, luggage racks with reading lamps, direct lighting (for passengers) and diffused lighting (for luggage racks), continuous LED light fixtures, modular pantry equipments and GPS antenna in all coaches, Mobile/laptop charging sockets in the passenger seats, CCTVs and Emergency talkback units with networking system in all coaches.

The revised specification takes care of the improvements pointed out by Chief Commissioner for Railway Safety (CMRS) in the prototype rake and will provide more reliable service along with ease of operations and improved passenger comfort. These lightweight energy-efficient trainsets will have a ride index of less than 3.5 against the earlier value of less than 4, which will improve passenger comfort even for longer journeys. These optimized trainsets will also be suitable for operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the electrics will be tested for continuous operations at 160 kmph.

A residual acceleration value of 0.1 ms2, which is double the earlier value of 0.05 ms2,  will enable the trainset to reach the top speed of 160 kmph in maximum 140 seconds. The new trainsets will provide an actual saving of 20% in journey time and all equipment are suitable for flooding conditions. The trainset interiors will have improved fire safety as per EN 45545 HL2 and improved electrical protection and safety with a well-defined protection scheme for High Voltage roof cable, Automatic fire detection and alarm. The trainset is also provided with explosion-proof, lightweight lithium-iron-phosphate batteries specified to provide back up for the duration of 3 hours, state of the art aluminum body roof-mounted packaged unit (RMPU) type air-conditioning units with thermal comfort based Microprocessor controller.

The peak efficiency of the propulsion system of these trainsets will not be less than 87% which provides for a more robust, efficient and reliable system. These trainsets will be supplied in multiples of Basic Units of 4 coaches each which can be attached or detached from the train as per requirement. This will be a major improvement in reliability and operational efficiency as it will be possible to replace basic units in case of defects or augment the train length up to 24 coaches in case of increased demand. The present trainsets do not have this feature because of which the entire trainset is rendered ineffective in case of any defect in a coach.

Bidding Process

The tender will be two packets single-stage bid, where the bidder has to submit electronic bids for the technical and financial bid simultaneously. The technical bid will be opened first and the offers found eligible will be categorised as qualified. The offer not complying with the essential technical and commercial requirement of the tender will be declared as in- eligible for award of contract. After evaluation of the technical and commercial suitability of offers for the placement of the order, the Financial bid will be opened for these Technically suitable offers. | Source: PIB |