JICA gives nod for India to build 75 per cent Metro coaches

Mumbai: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has agreed to allow manufacture of 75 per cent of coaches for Mumbai’s Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 underground corridor in India.

According to officials of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), the executing agency of the project, JICA had earlier contended that as the loan agreement was signed before the Centre came out with its “Make in India” initiative, procurement of rolling stock (coaches) should be open to global manufacturing.

A MMRC spokesperson said, “JICA has concurred with MMRC’s proposal of indigenisation of rolling stock (coaches) and agreed that a maximum number of 48 cars (out of 210 cars to be manufactured) can be manufactured in the offshore factory outside India. The balance cars will be manufactured in India which may include manufacturing by sub-contractors of the bidder.” MMRC will now float bids to procure rolling stock where bidders will be asked to manufacture 75 per cent of the coaches in India with the rest to be manufactured elsewhere outside India. So, even if the company is based outside India, it will have to manufacture the coaches in India by setting up a unit.

MMRC will procure 31 trains of eight coaches, which brings the total count of coaches required to be procured to 248. According to MMRC estimates, the average daily ridership of the Metro corridor will be about 18 lakh and the project is scheduled for completion by 2021.

Metro 3 will have 27 underground stations and will be a crucial north-south link connecting major central business districts (CBD) like Nariman Point, Bandra-Kurla Complex and Seepz in Andheri. An email query sent to JICA India for its version of the story did not yield any response.