 "Indian Railways sign deal with Indo-Russian JV for Vande Bharat trains")
The Indian Railways has signed a supply contract with the Indo-Russian joint venture (JV), Kinet Railway Solutions, for manufacturing Vande Bharat trains, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET). Earlier, the viability of the JV had been questioned as the United States imposed fresh sanctions against senior officials linked with the Russian partners in this joint venture with the Indian company, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
The deal between the Indian Railways and Kinet Railway Solutions will involve the manufacturing of 120 Vande Bharat trains, along with maintenance services for 35 years, government officials familiar with the matter said. Kinet Railway Solutions is a joint venture between Metrowagonmash (MWM) and Locomotive Electronic Systems (LES) from Russia and RVNL from India. With the JV signing the deal, any apprehensions about the viability of this partnership have been put to rest, an unnamed official told ET.
The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed around 100 sanctions on Russian elites on 14 September. Andrei Removich Bokarev, the president of Transmash, and his wife Olga Vladimirovna Syrovatskaya were among those sanctioned by the US. Kinet Railway Solutions sought to downplay the impact of these sanctions on the venture.
Addressing the impact of the sanctions, Kinet's press service stated, "No third-country sanctions will be able to affect the realisation of the Vande Bharat project in India." The dispute had caused a delay in the contract signing with the Indian Railways until September, even though bids had been opened in March of this year, the ET report noted.