Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to Russia to participate in the 16th BRICS summit to be held in Kazan on 22 and 23 October at the invitation of Vladimir Putin.
Experts say that during this time Russia can also talk to PM Modi regarding Vande Bharat Rail Project.
Due to regulatory and technical hurdles, Russian company Transmashholding (TMH) is not able to manufacture Vande Bharat trains. Due to this, a project worth 6.5 billion dollars is stuck.
Russian company TMH is working on this project in collaboration with government company Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL). The issue was also raised during PM Modi’s visit to Moscow in July.
Experts say that this time too Russia wants to keep this matter prominent. PM Modi will meet President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Earlier in July, annual bilateral talks were held between the two leaders. In September, Putin had said that the meeting with PM Modi would be important for the existing projects.
Problem since winning the bid
The consortium of RVNL and TMH started facing problems after winning the tender of Rs 58000 in March 2023. Under this project, 200 Vande Bharat trains were to be manufactured.
The cost of one train was around Rs 120 crore. After this the government reduced the project to only 120 trains and reduced the project to Rs 36 thousand crores.
When an appeal was made to restructure the shareholding in the consortium, the government did not approve it. RVNL spokesperson, Kinect Railway Solutions, PM Office and the Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to multiple emails on this matter.
In the month of September, senior officers of TMH came to Delhi. After this the Russian team also visited Maharashtra where this project is related to.
Another expert said, RVNL and two Russian companies are equity partners in this project. An appeal was made to change the shareholding of two Russian companies.
This was done so that it is not affected by the sanctions of western countries. TMH is among those companies on which the US has imposed sanctions.
According to the press note of RVNL, on March 29, 2023, TMH’s subsidiary company MetrowagonMash, and Locomotive Electronics System and RVNL of India had signed a shareholding agreement in the name of SPV Kinect Railway Solutions. Under this, the responsibility of maintenance was also to be taken for 35 years.
RVNL held 25 percent shares in Kinect Railway Solutions. Apart from this, the shares of other two Russian companies were 70 and five percent.
The Russian company asked the government to exchange the shareholdings of MWM and LES. RVNL’s stake will also not be affected by this.
However, the government has not yet given permission for this. He said, the government wants to further reduce the number of trains and increase coaches in each train.
There is a plan to increase coaches from 16 to 24. In such a situation, due to these obstacles the Vande Bharat project is stuck.
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