Bids Invited for Delhi Metro Phase 4’s 288 Coach Rolling Stock

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday invited tenders to procure 288 new coaches (48 trains) to operate on the 3 priority corridors of the 65.1 km Delhi Metro Phase 4 project.

Tenders for this rolling stock package RS17 have been invited in two parts financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through a Rs. 8,390 crore loan.

These new trains must be 3.2 m wide, lightweight, made of stainless steel, and compliant with standard gauge track system. They must also be suitable for communications-based train control (CBTC) signaling for Unattended Train Operations (UTO) conforming to Grade of Automation level 4.

Trains will be stabled at the following maintenance depots:

• Line-7 (Pink Line): Mukundpur and Vinod Nagar
• Line-8 (Magenta Line): Kalindi Kunj and Mukundpur (future)
• Line-10 (Silver Line): Sarita Vihar (future)

To support the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Make in India) initiative, DMRC has added a clause that a maximum of 72 coaches (12 trains) can be manufactured in an off-shore factory outside of India. To comply with the bid conditions, the contractor must establish facilities locally either independently or with an Indian partner.

Brief Scope: PART-A: Design, Manufacture, Supply, Testing, Commissioning, Training of 234 Nos. Standard Gauge Cars for Extended Sections of Line 7 & 8 AND PART-B: Design, Manufacture, Supply, Testing, Commissioning, Training of 54 Nos. of Standard Gauge Cars Including Comprehensive Maintenance up to Fifteen Years for These 54 Nos. Standard Gauge Cars for Aerocity – Tughlakabad Corridor

• Completion period: 236 weeks (4.5 years)
• Bid Submission End Date: 15-Sep-2021 at 03:00 PM
• Technical Bid Opening Date: 16-Sep-2021 at 03:05 PM

I wrote about this upcoming tender back in December 2020 and at that time, DMRC and JICA had estimated it to cost Rs 3567.11 crore. The tender docs does not provide an estimate.

Just 9 trains for the entire Silver Line (23.63 km long with 16 stations) seems awfully low to me. If ridership is a concern, then why build the line in the first place? Unless DMRC rejigs its plan or rebalances its fleet, train frequency on this new line will be extremely low.

Delhi Metro Rolling Stock Recap

The Delhi Metro currently has 2294 coaches in its fleet and the number will reach 2582 after Phase 4’s RS17 order is fulfilled.

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– TMRG

Hat-tip: Brahamjeet Dhankar