Locomotive factories may be delayed by chotelal on 02 September, 2012 - 03:00 PM | ||
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chotelal | Locomotive factories may be delayed on 02 September, 2012 - 03:00 PM | |
PATNA: Despite clearance from railway ministry, the fate of two major locomotive manufacturing factories ('diesel' at Marhaura in Saran district and 'electric' at Madhepura) continues to hang in the balance. These two factories are likely to be delayed further as land acquisition work is still going on at these two places.According to a Railway Board official, the two major projects were approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in 2007 during former railway minister Lalu Prasad's tenure. However, work on these projects could not make much progress due to some technical problems or lack of bidders to invest in these two projects, he said, adding railways has now shortlisted bidders for these two factories through international committee bidding (ICB).Railways has decided to set up the Madhepura factory at an estimated cost of Rs 1,294 crore while the factory at Marhaura is to be built at a cost of Rs 2,025 crore, a board official said.According to sources, railways had allocated Rs 495.84 crore during the fiscal 2011-2012 for the Madhepura factory mainly for land acquisition purpose. "Work for land acquisition at Madhepura is yet to be completed. Railways would expedite work on this project only after completion of land acquisition," chief administrative officer of ECR, Ramasish Yadav said.According to an ECR official, the two factories are needed to fulfil the requirement of the eastern region of railways. Since work on two separate east and west corridors has been going on in full swing for free movement of goods traffic at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore, these two loco factories will cope with huge demand of locomotives, he said. |