BEML Ltd. today announced that it has received approximately Rs. 3658 crore contract for supply of 210 buses for 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL).
If you have been following my site, this news should come as no surprise as BEML has been declared the highest bidder, beating Titagarh Rail Systems, for the ARE02A rolling stock package in September 2024.
CMRL plans to operate these 70 3-car standard gauge trainsets (configuration: DMC + TC + DMC) on the 45.4 km Line 3 (Madhavaram – Siruseri SIPCOT) and 44.6 km Line 5 (Madhavaram – Sholinganallur) of Phase 2.
It took CMRL a while to get to this point. They had received no bids in the first round of tenders between July 2021 and May 2022 and had canceled the tender process in June 2022. The official reason for not participating never emerged, but I suspect it was due to STEP Loan Requirements established by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which requires the use of a significant percentage of Japanese content.
CMRL had again invited bids in July 2023 and technical bids were opened in May 2024 to reveal that BEML and Titagarh Rail Systems had tendered for its 21.84 year contract which includes 15 years of maintenance complete.
Financial bids from both companies were opened on September 18 to reveal that BEML was the lowest bidder for the contract.
Brief scope of CMRL: Design, manufacturing, supply, testing, commissioning, staff training and global maintenance contract for fifteen (15) years of standard gauge metropolitan rolling stock (electric multiple units) and machinery and depot facilities
The new trains in Chennai will have to conform to Grade of Automation-4 (GoA4) standards for “driverless” operations. BEML has not announced the delivery schedule, but looking at its current order book which includes trains for Mumbai Metro (576 coaches) and Bangalore Metro (318 coaches), I suspect that the first train will be operational only in the first quarter of 2027.
With this development, CMRL has awarded 2 of the 3 rolling stock contracts planned for the Phase 2 project.
In September, Alstom Transport launched the first of 36 trains covering 26km of Line 4 connecting Light House – Poonamallee Bypass. The production of these trainsets as part of the ARE03 package had formally started in Sri City in February 2024.
Bidding is currently underway for the second Line 3 and Line 5 rolling stock contract comprising 96 buses under Package ARE04A from February 2024. CMRL had changed its model from rental to procurement after receiving a lackluster response . The technical offer opening date continues to be postponed and is currently set for December 20th, so stay tuned!
A list of all Chennai Metro Phase 2 tenders (civil, systems) and their status can be viewed here.
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