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The share of wagon manufacturing PSUs in the new orders has declined to 4,057.5 in 2004-05 from 8,760 in 2003-04.

New Delhi , Aug. 24

A PARLIAMENTARY Committee has asked the Railway Ministry to formulate its wagon requirement plan and inform the wagon manufacturing industry about it well in advance. The Railways, meanwhile, has projected to acquire 22,500 four-wheeler units (FWUs) during 2005-06 and 18,566 units during 2006-07.

The Committee also pointed out that the wagon population of the Railways has decreased over the years and "the total number of wagons which the Railways hold today is 45,000 wagons less than 12-13 years ago". During 1991-92 and 1992-93, the Railways had 4,85,000 FWUs, whereas in 2002-03 the wagon population declined to 4,40,000. Driven by consistent growth in freight traffic, the wagon acquisition target for the Tenth Plan period was revised to 94,214 FWUs during the mid-term appraisal from 65,000 FWUs indicated in the Plan document.

The Committee also noted that the Railways' average annual wagon acquisition has been much lower than the total installed capacity in the country. Off-take of wagons by the Railways never crossed 24,000 per year during the last six-seven years and the average annual off-take has hovered around 15,000 FWUs. Whereas the total installed capacity, as per the Railways, as on date is 35,296 FWUs — consisting of 15,661 FWUs in the public sector and 19,635 FWUs in the private sector. The Railways also have in-house wagon manufacturing capacity of 2,200 FWUs, which is fully utilised. Non-availability of adequate and timely orders from major buyers — the Railways, has provoked a serious debate about the survival of the wagon manufacturing public sector units (PSUs), it stated.

The share of wagon manufacturing PSUs in the new orders has declined to 4,057.5 in 2004-05 from 8,760 in 2003-04. As a result, their utilisation capacity has touched the lowest figure of 22.3 per cent in 2004-05 from 40.4 per cent in 2000-01, stated the Committee.

Meanwhile, the Railways pointed out that the PSUs have not been able to execute orders and are continuously under-performing for the last three years. Every year, each PSU had more orders than they could service. As on July 1, 2005, total outstanding orders on PSUs are 7,100 FWUs, it said.

"Railways must formulate a perspective plan for their requirement of wagons on the realistic basis and simultaneously apprise the wagon manufacturing industry of the same well in advance," according to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways.

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