BHEL, Swiss firm evince interest in Maglev train
Six firms, including Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Switzerland-based Swissrapide AG and an American rail firm, have shown interest in developing India’s proposed Maglev trains that would operate on the principle of magnetic levitation and can run at a top speed of 500 km an hour.
The Indian Railways had floated an expression of interest in July this year for developing maglev trains and will now frame a request for proposal document after examining the proposals from these six firms in the next four months, a senior Railways official said.
Swissrapide AG currently operates Shanghai’s Transrapid Maglev train since over a decade which is the fastest commercial train at present running at a top speed of 430 km per hour. Georgia-based American Maglev Technology Inc, which has also shown interest in the project, has built test tracks for maglev trains in the United States, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Indian firms
Among Indian firms, apart from BHEL, Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives, Surat-based Agilu Setu Pvt Ltd and a Gurgaon-based private person Sharad M. Marathe have expressed interest in developing levitation-based train system in the country.
Railways officials said Sharad M. Marathe is the President and CEO of Universal Technical Systems Inc based in the USA. “Mr. Marathe is in the process of forming a joint venture with a firm ET3, Evacuated Tube Transportation System. Since the JV could not be incorporated, he didn’t mention the name of the new firm in his proposal,” a senior Railways official said.
“We will be looking at the responses that we have received and match that with the technicalities and technology we had asked for. We will then frame specifications and then call for proposals within next four months,” Indian Railways executive director, mechanical engineering (development) Nitin Chowdhary said.
The developer of the maglev train will be responsible for designing, testing, building, running trials and operations of the levitation-based system between two key cities at a distance of 200-500 km. As the trains are propelled by magnetic forces, friction is eliminated, making transportation free of noise and vibration.
The developer will be given a free-hand in running the train services, fixing schedule, fares and add-on services on board, as per the EoI document.
