BENGALURU: Following Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s directive to the Rail Infrastructure Development Company Karnataka (K-RIDE) during his visit to Bengaluru to procure coaches for the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) from the Indian Railways to speed up its supply, the agency has now approached the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to do so.
This follows poor response for multiple tenders called for by K-RIDE, the nodal agency for implementing the Rs 15,767-crore BSRP.
ICF, a subsidiary of Indian Railways, is the largest manufacturer of rail coaches in the world. BSRP coaches would be air-conditioned ones and modelled on Bengaluru Metro coaches.
“We have already held talks with ICF officials on the supply of coaches. Since the State Government has earmarked Rs 2,135 crore for the procurement of coaches in its budget last year (its 50% share) we are looking at procuring 150 coaches out of our requirement of 306 coaches from ICF. They will be giving us their quote for the same within a month,” K-RIDE Managing Director, N Manjula, told The New Indian Express.
K-RIDE will then have to take the State Government’s consent to approve it and also seek for an exemption from calling tenders as it would delay the project further.
A preliminary global tender for the supply of coaches was first called for on January 25, 2023. Multiple tenders were called for subsequently but they elicited poor response.
A top official had confided to TNIE last year, “Like Bengaluru Metro’s Yellow Line, even the BSRP could get stuck without rolling stock to run the operations unless drastic steps are taken.”
Tenders in connection with civil works have been floated only for two of the four corridors of the project (Rajanakunte-Heelalige and Baiyappanahalli-Chikkabanavara) and they are unlikely to commence operations by December 2026, the latest deadline announced by K-RIDE.