Titagarh Wagons is the only firm that has evinced interest in leasing trains for Chennai Metro Rail’s phase II project.
For the phase II project, the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) will both procure trains and lease them as well. The plan to lease them was mooted only because they had to cut down capital expenditure as the project cost was phenomenally high initially.
From ₹88,000 crore, the cost was trimmed to ₹80,000 crore. Yet, the Centre wanted the CMRL to see how much more it can be reduced. After months of deliberations, the project cost was brought down to ₹61,843 crore.
One of the elements that helped the CMRL cut cost was leasing trains instead of procuring everything. It was decided to buy 288 coaches (96 trains) and lease the remaining 126 coaches (42 trains).
All the trains for the phase II project will have three coaches, and will later be expanded to six coaches based on demand.
CMRL has been finalising tenders for procuring 288 coaches.
For leasing the coaches, the CMRL invited expression of interest (EoI) a few weeks ago.
CMRL officials plan to ask a few other firms in the sector to know why they were not interested, get their feedback and issue another EoI.
