MUMBAI: In a move aimed at making train travel safer, Indian Railways has floated a request for proposal (RFP) to install closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras in coaches.
According to industry sources, the initial value of the project will be Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore for installation of more than 7.5 million CCTV cameras in 40,000 coaches. The earnest money for the bid has been set at Rs 8,98,610.
“This is a significant development, which will require multiple cogs across vertical devices, software and data infrastructure to come together,” said an executive from a digital infrastructure provider who is planning to bid as part of a consortium.
The tender document, which was published on October 24, has listed November 15 as the last date for submission of bids. However, industry players said the deadline is likely to be extended. The earlier tender was updated on two occasions with changes in key guidelines such as ‘Make in India’ specifications.
According to the qualification criteria for bidders set forth in the RFP, companies bidding for the contract need to have an average annual turnover of a minimum of Rs 1,200 crore over the last three financial years (that is, 2020-21, 2021-22 & 2022-23).
Additionally, only companies that have completed a project of Rs 60 crore, or two projects of Rs 40 crore each, or three projects of Rs 30 crore each with scope of IT implementation projects/services in India for the Centre or state governments are eligible to bid.
Bidding companies also need to have prior experience in completing a project involving supply, installation and commissioning of minimum 800 CCTV cameras in a single project which includes integrated command and control centre, data centre infrastructure and applications.
While the tender document does not specify the number of trains being fitted with CCTV cameras, it does mention that there is requirement for six cameras per coach and eight in second-class luggage rake for disabled (SLRD) coaches.
The document also specifies that out of eight cameras, two will be provided in the luggage compartment with display screens in the guard room.
The project, mostly likely to be bid for by a primary bidder – an infrastructure company – and will include a network of sub-contractors responsible for various functions.
The network of sub-contractors could include device manufacturers – camera, cable and monitor – for the hardware, a bandwidth provider, data centre service providers, cloud service providers – most likely major players such Amazon, Google and Microsoft – and other digital infrastructure providers.
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