Railways’ proposed multi-crore electric locomotive project at Madhepura in Bihar has hit a roadblock over changes made in the bidding documents “without the approval of the Cabinet“.

The changes made in the eligibility norms, if executed, would increase the project cost by more than Rs 16,000 crore in the proposed electrical locomotive factory.

The cost of setting up of the factory and manufacturing of locos and subsequently their maintenance for 15 years is estimated at Rs 30,000 crore.

“Changes have been made in the RFQ (request for qualification) of electric locomotive factory at Madhepura in qualifying criteria in technical and financial capacity and maintenance experience without the approval of Cabinet, which has vitiated the atmosphere,” the Railway Finance Commissioner, Ms Pompa Babbar, has written to the Chairman of the Railway Board, Mr Vinay Mittal, before her retirement on November 30.

The Cabinet had approved the setting up of the modern electric locomotive factory at Madhepura and diesel locomotive factory at Marhora in 2009 as joint venture projects. Bidding norms were also approved by the Cabinet.

The Government has also constituted an empowered committee under the CRB and with senior officials of the Finance Ministry, Planning Commission and Law Ministry as its members to accommodate changes sought by bidders in the pre-bid conference.

However, after Cabinet approval, a lot of changes were made through Empowered Committee (EC) without informing it about the financial implication of changes.

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