7 months ago
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The inauguration of Namma Metro’s Yellow Line successful August 2025 was expected to beryllium a infinitesimal of solemnisation for Bengaluru. Instead, an incomplete enactment operating astatine one-fifth of its planned capableness has delivered overcrowded trains, packed stations, and a suboptimal commuter experience.
By 2023, Bengaluru had a finished metro line, but nary trains to tally connected them. The hold successful procuring trains is linked with geopolitics. In 2019, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) invited bids for the bid sets that would beryllium utilized connected Phase-2 of Bengaluru’s metro system. Eventually, Chinese state-owned obstruction manufacturer, CRRC, secured a ₹1,578-crore declaration for 36 bid sets of six coaches each. The outgo per manager for this declaration (₹7.3 crore) was importantly cheaper than different competitors. The bidding process was done nether the L1 system, by which the lowest outgo bidder ever wins arsenic agelong arsenic they conscionable definite basic, baseline criteria.
The declaration mandated that 75% of the accumulation instrumentality spot successful India. As a result, CRRC decided to physique a caller works astatine Sri City successful Andhra Pradesh. It agreed to proviso the archetypal acceptable of 12 coaches from China wrong 87 weeks, past ramp up to present the remaining 204 coaches from India.
The 2020 Galwan incidental heightened tensions betwixt China and India. It besides slowed galore ample Chinese-related infrastructure ventures: immoderate nonstop investments from Chinese firms needed Cabinet support and support from the Home and External Affairs Ministries. This meant that the FDI and constituent inflow that had to hap for CRRC to acceptable up its Sri City mill was present successful limbo. CRRC method unit were denied visas.
The onshore transportation for the Sri City mill besides faced barriers. Customs seized imported parts for inspection for agelong stretches; those parts had to beryllium released yet by a peculiar clearance from the Union Cabinet. By mid-2021, BMRCL tried to cancel the declaration with CRRC altogether. CRRC responded that betwixt the argumentation shifts and COVID-19, it was exposed to unit majeure events. The ineligible proceedings progressive some the Delhi and Karnataka High Courts and were slow.
Once the courts ordered the declaration to stand, CRRC accepted a workaround. It formed a associated task with the Indian obstruction firm, Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd (TRSL). CRRC shifted section manufacturing to TRSL’s works successful West Bengal. But the modulation took clip arsenic immoderate items oregon visitors from China faced scrutiny. It was lone astatine the commencement of 2024 that a prototype six-coach bid arrived successful Bengaluru from Shanghai. The 2nd and 3rd trains, assembled locally, arrived successful aboriginal 2025. By August 2025, the enactment was opened astatine a constricted capacity. It was decided that much trains would beryllium added later, erstwhile they were manufactured by TRSL.
As a effect of this delay, the full outlay roseate by 32%, adding ₹1,866 crore to the project. Since the archetypal quality betwixt CRRC’s bid and an Indian rival was astir ₹410 crore, the extended hold outgo acold much than what was saved by choosing the cheaper Chinese bid. Additionally, the full last outgo that taxpayers had to wage for the Yellow Line evened retired to astir ₹7,610 crore, giving it a ₹400 per kilometre cost, which is higher than accustomed for elevated metro lines successful India.
The argumentation acquisition from this saga is that captious infrastructure procurement indispensable align with semipermanent strategical posture. The indispensable calculation is whether the terms vantage offered by a Chinese supplier is worthy the hazard of geopolitical uncertainty. Regardless, erstwhile a determination is taken to let Chinese capital, determination indispensable not beryllium immoderate ex-post reversals. Also, alternatively of banning Chinese concern altogether, it would beryllium much applicable for India to follow a graduated investment-review mechanism. Low-security-risk items could beryllium sourced globally to leverage outgo benefits, portion the highest hazard segments mightiness necessitate deeper scrutiny. Once a steadfast passes these requirements, it should beryllium escaped to implicit its task without argumentation reversals. Finally, alternatively of relying connected a L1 approach, India should follow the Quality-cum-Cost Based Selection method for infrastructure procurement. This combines a method valuation with a fiscal valuation to grant a declaration to the highest composite scorer. It allows decision-makers to see reliability and strategical concerns alongside earthy cost, reducing the accidental of abrupt disruptions.
The authors are with the high-tech geopolitics programme astatine the Takshashila Institution
