General Electric wins tender for 12 locomotives for upcountry railway line

• $ 4.056 million per engine

Cabinet on Wednesday gave the green light to procure 12 locomotives for the upcountry railway line from US company General Electric (GE) at a cost of $ 4.056 million per engine, Cabinet Co-spokesperson Gayantha Karunathilaka said on Thursday. 

The proposal, made by Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to proceed with the procurement which includes a financing package, was granted approval subject to obtaining relevant authorisation by the Department of External Resources. 

The tender called for in 2016 received eight bids, of which six were rejected due to major deviations observed in bidding conditions and technical specifications. The only qualifying bidders were Electro Motive Diesel Incorporation of the US bidding at $ 3,184,634 and GE bidding at $ 4,081,000. 

However, the process got temporarily derailed when two of the seven unsuccessful bidders filed appeals against the decision given by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) to award the tender to GE.  

A new TEC was appointed to reassess the tender, which recommended the tender be awarded to GE. The Cabinet has also given approval for the Department of External Resources to negotiate the financial packages with relevant financial Institutions in order to select the acceptable financial package and pay due attention to the initial financing cost included by the bidder into the FOB bid price and the confirmation of the bidder about the cost to be incurred by the Sri Lankan Government, $ 160,000.00 being a partial upfront fee of 0.3% on the Export Credit Agency.