Title - BEML rolls out coach shells from Kanjikode

Steals a march over Railways as coach factory is delayed

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BEML has started rolling out shells of railway coaches from its greenfield project at Kanjikode, where a Rs. 550-crore coach factory project of Railways is struggling to take off.The Mini Ratna company of the Defence Ministry, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Ltd., makes 30 shells of general second-class and metro coaches every month at the unit. The shells are taken by road on trailers to its furnishing unit in Bangalore, official sources told The Hindu on Sunday.BEML’s defence product manufacturing complex in the Kinfra Wise Park at Kanjikode was set up in six months with an outlay of Rs. 260 crore at the initiative of Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony.When the coach factory comes up, Kanjikode will emerge as a railway-coach hub. A vendor-supply chain can come up on the Coimbatore-Kanjikode stretch to supply parts to the factory and the BEML unit.

Railways are unhappy with the way things are moving for the factory, which was announced in the Railway Budget for 2008-09. A railway official said the Rail India Technical and Engineering Services (RITES) was framing a request for proposal for inviting global competitive tenders for the project.

Joint venture

Rather than adopting a public-private partnership, with the private investor have a 76 per cent stake, sources said, a joint venture with a competent partner and technology support and progressive transfer of technology and indigenisation can do wonders for the factory.

Railways took over 92.04 hectares of forestland at Kanjikode in August 2012 for the factory, paying Rs. 32.44 crore. Another 36 hectares of forestland is required, and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests have to de-notify it.

The land will help Railways lay the assembly lines to its shape and specifications. A sand shortage has come in the way of efforts by the Palakkad divisional railway authorities to construct a boundary wall, a camp office and a Railway Protection Force outpost and provide lighting and other infrastructure on the land. Another five months will be needed for the work. Sources said the sand was being provided from the seized quota of the District Collector.

The plan is to set up facilities for manufacturing modern LHB-design stainless-steel and state-of-the-art aluminium coaches. As many as 400 coaches are to be manufactured every year.