By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, Mar 1 (IANS): Russian-Indian consortium Transmashholding (TMH)-Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) has turned out to be the lowest bidder for rolling out 200 Vande Bharat aluminium sleeper trains, it is learnt.

The next lowest financial bidder is the consortium of BHEL-Titagarh Wagons.

The Indian Railways had invited bids to roll out 200 Vande Bharat sleeper trains.

As per the tender conditions, the second lowest bidder can make 80 trains at the price quoted by the lowest bidder.

It is learnt TMH-RVNL will roll out the train sets at Latur plant.

At an analyst meeting, RVNL's Director, Operations, Rajesh Prasad had said the company had bid for trainsets and the approximate cost is around Rs 55,000 crore plus.

However, concerns are being raised about the winning bidders.

"The emergence of Russia's Tranmashholding (TMH RVNL) as the lowest financial bidder for 200 Vande Bharat trains and the consortium of BHEL and Titagarh Wagons as the second lowest bidder presents a challenge for the timely production of the Vande Bharat trains," Sudhanshu Mani, Retired General Manager of Integral Coach Factory and the father of Vande Bharat train, told IANS.

"Although the quoted rates appear to be very aggressive, it may be so due to TMH's desperate quest to enter the Indian market through the order for 120 trains at Latur. They have no footprint in India and it will not be an easy task for them to deliver these trains in time," he added.

"It would also be interesting to see if BHEL Titagarh accepts this L1 price for 80 trains in ICF. It surely is a dampener for competent manufacturers like Alstom, Siemens and Stadler and some uncertainity for this ambitious project," Mani said.

Attempts to reach out to top RVNL officials by IANS for comments went in vain.

The bids were opened on Wednesday.