The Railway Ministry has scrapped a long-delayed tender and restarted the procurement process for 238 AC local trains, in an effort to speed up the fleet expansion.
New Plan Rolled Out
The Railway Ministry on Wednesday cancelled the tender for the 238 Mumbai AC local rakes floated by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), opting instead for simultaneous production at three railway manufacturing units to speed up deliveries.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the rakes would now be built at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala, and the Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Rae Bareli.
"Mumbai local is the lifeline of the city. The entire procurement was going to 2030 and that was not acceptable to us," Vaishnaw said.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed the ₹19,293 crore tender for 238 AC Mumbai local rakes will be cancelled.
— Siege (@Siege4570) August 12, 2026
The tender was scrapped due to delays,as the first rake would arrive only by 2030. Work will now go to ICF,MCF & RCF with the first rake targeted for 2027. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/7D2JIPrlZY
The first batch of new AC locals is now targeted for 2027, well ahead of the earlier 2030 timeline, with the complete fleet of 238 rakes to be delivered by 2030.
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Why The Tender Was Dropped
An assessment of the earlier procurement timeline, which involved appointing a contractor and production through technology partners, found that series production would take around three years to begin, pushing the first rake's arrival to 2030 and the full fleet to 2034.
To avoid this delay, the ministry decided to scrap the tender and manufacture the rakes simultaneously across three Indian Railways production units instead, Vaishnaw said.
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Aligning With New Infrastructure
MRVC Chairman and Managing Director Vilas S Wadekar said the revised approach would align the induction of AC rakes with the commissioning of new corridors, additional lines, and other capacity augmentation works, allowing Mumbaikars to benefit from AC suburban travel substantially earlier, Hindustan Times reported.
The tender overhaul comes alongside a broader Rs 22,000 crore investment in capacity augmentation of Mumbai's suburban railway network, covering new corridors, additional railway lines, platform extensions to accommodate 15-coach trains, and yard remodelling to strengthen the city's suburban rail infrastructure.
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