DMRC to meet prospective coach suppliers for Kochi Metro.

The number of firms in the fray to supply 75 coaches for the Kochi Metro will be clear soon, when the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the consultants for the project, is scheduled to hold a pre-bid meeting in New Delhi.

The Rs. 750-crore contract to supply coaches for the metro was retendered on March 10 at the insistence of the director board of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL). This was after only a single Korean firm qualified to supply coaches for the metro. DMRC had fixed 2.90 metres as the coach width, while KMRL wanted to relax the norms, in the hope of bringing in more competition.

DMRC countered this argument saying that coaches supplied by the Korean firm are already in use in Delhi Metro and a few others. The agency also spoke of how retendering might delay Kochi Metro's scheduled date of commissioning - June 2016, by up to a year or more.

At retendering, firms interested in supplying coaches will get a chance to clear doubts, if any, about the design, manufacture, supply, testing and commissioning of coaches.

The Hindu