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Journalism of Courage
Top international players, including consortiums from China and Japan have bid to set up a Greenfield Electric Locomotive Factory at Madhepura in Bihar. The Rs 1,460 crore project envisages setting up the factory and long-term Procurement-cum-Maintenance of Electric Locomotives for Indian Railways.
Responding to the Request for Qualification (RFQ) issued by the Railways Ministry, five players have bid for the project. These include Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens, a Chinese consortium comprising CSR-Zhuzhou Electric Loco Works and Monnet International and a Japanese Consortium comprising Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Kawasaki.
The proposed contract requires the producer to supply 660 electric locomotives of 12,000 horsepower to Indian Railways over an eight-year period. In addition, the player setting up the factory will have to undertake maintenance of these locomotives for a 20-year period.
