Metro invites bids for 318 coaches for use on Silk Board-KIA and Nagavara lines

Namma Metro has invited bids for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, maintenance, testing and commissioning of 318 coaches for Phases 2, 2A and 2B.

Training of personnel and comprehensive maintenance of coaches for up to 15 years are also part of the tender.

The BMRCL is seeking to procure these metro cars in six-car train sets. The biggest chunk of these coaches (126) will be run on the crucial 37-km KR Puram-airport line, while 96 metro cars each will be used for the 21.36-km Kalena Agrahara-Nagavara (Pink Line under Phase 2) and the 18.23-km Silk Board Junction-KR Puram (Phase 2A) lines. Bids will be opened on December 12, 2022.

The BMRCL will pay for these metro cars from a part of the Rs 3,717-crore loan that it received from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in March this year.

This tender is separate from the 216-coach contract that the BMRCL had awarded to the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. The Chinese firm was unable to fulfill the Rs 1,578-crore contract as it failed to set up a manufacturing plant in India, a key condition of the contract.

The BMRCL threatened to encash the bank guarantee. The firm went to the high court and sought more time to fulfill the obligation. The court directed the BMRCL to consider the firm's fresh proposal. In July, the agency accepted the firm's request to manufacture the coaches in India in partnership with the Kolkata-based Titagarh Wagons at the 2019 prices.

Of the 216 coaches, 126 will be run on the Green and Purple lines and the remaining 90 on the 19-km under-construction RV Road-Bommasandra line.

Civil work on the Kalena Agrahara-Nagavara line, which runs 13.92 km underground, is more than 50% complete while the Silk Board Junction-KR Puram-airport lines (Phase 2A and 2B) are only 19% complete, as per the BMRCL's September 2022 newsletter.

Going by the delay in tendering, the first coaches would take up to two years to arrive. This also means the Kalena Agarahara-Nagavara line would open only by late 2024 or even later.