Title - Loco factories to be built under public-private partnership mode

PATNA: It is official now. Two locomotive factories proposed to be built at Marhaura (diesel) in Saran district and Madhepura (electric) in Bihar will now be built under public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Railway minister Mukul Roy made this clear recently during a meeting with the Railway Board officials.According to a Board official, there was no question of these major projects getting shelved. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had already approved them in 2007. "It is good that the railways has taken a firm policy decision to go ahead with these two projects in Bihar," he said adding the railways would now shortlist bidders for these two factories through International Committee Bidding (ICB).According to sources, the railways has taken the decision as it would require about 1,800 to 2,000 electric locomotives to haul both passenger and goods trains by 2015-2016. Besides, the railways is announcing several pairs of new passenger trains across the country almost every year in the railway budget. These locomotive factories located at Madhepura and Marhaura in Bihar would fulfill the needs of the railways, sources said."If everything is finalized as per railway requirements, efforts will be made to complete these factories in about 36 months from the date of agreement with private firms," a Board official added.The railways has decided to set up the factory at Madhepura at an estimated cost of Rs 1,294 crore while the factory at Marhaura will be built at a cost of Rs 2,025 crore, sources said, adding the railways has already allocated some funds in the current fiscal for initial expenditure like acquiring land and construction of boundary walls. According to the Board official, these two factories are the need of the time. Since the work is in full swing on East and West freight corridors for free movement of goods traffic at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore, these two loco factories would cope with huge demand of locomotives, he said. At present, the railways has two locomotive factories located at Varanasi (diesel engine) and Chittraranjan (electric engine). The railways has taken steps to augment the current electric loco production capacity of the Chittraranjan Locomotive Works from 200 to 250 annually to fulfill the needs of the railways. However, the railways is very keen to start production at the two factories soon in Bihar, sources said.