The Hindu Business Line : Rail coach factory at Rae Bareilly, loco unit at Saran

The Railways proposes to set up a coach factory in Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and a locomotive factory in Saran, Bihar with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in each unit, over the next few years. The units are together expected to provide direct employment to 10,000 people and indirect employment to 20,000 people approximately. The Railways would be preparing a detailed project report, apart from a funding plan, on setting up these two units.

Coach Factory

At present, the coach manufacturing units at Kapurthala and Chennai together manufacture about 2,000 coaches every year. Their capacities are being increased to produce 3,000 coaches per annum. However, this is not enough and the country's total production capacity needs to be increased to be able to produce about 5,000-6,000 coaches over the next few years, said a senior Railway Ministry official. The proposed coach factory would manufacture coaches not just for the Railways but target the mass rapid transit systems as well.

Employment

The proposed coach factory in Rae Bareilly would directly employ about 5,000 people and provide indirect employment to about 10,000 people, said the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, in Parliament while moving the supplementary demand for grants. Incidentally, Rae Bareilly is the constituency of the UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi.

On the Indian Railways' locomotive requirements, Mr Prasad said that at present the two locomotive units at Chittaranjan and Varanasi together manufacture about 300 engines annually. By increasing their production capacity, each of the unit can manufacture 200 locomotives each. With this, the Indian Railways can produce 2,000 locomotives over the next five years, whereas, there is a requirement for over 4,000 locomotives during the period.

Thus, the Railways proposed to set up a locomotive manufacturing unit in Saran, Bihar. Saran district includes Mr Prasad's constituency Chhapra as well.

On the wagon front, officials said that the Railways has called for a meeting of all wagon manufacturers on August 24 to discuss the modernisation required by the Railways. "We need lightweight wagons that can carry higher payload," said the official. The Railways plans to acquire about 10,000 wagons this year, which would be its highest wagon order ever.

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Rail coach factory at Rae Bareilly, loco unit at Saran