In order to meet the increasing demand of both passenger and freight traffic, the Railway Budget 2009-10 has planned to acquire 18,000 wagons under the rolling stock programme as against 11,000 wagons in 2008-09 at an estimated cost of Rs 12,393 crore.

The budget has also proposed setting up of a new factory at Kanchrapara-Halisahar Railway complex in West Bengal with annual production capacity of 500 electrical multiple units (EMU), mainline electrical multiple units (MEMU) and metro coaches besides expediting the process of setting up a Rail Coach Factory (RCF) at Rae Bareily at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

The proposed state of the art factory in West Bengal will be set up as a joint venture (JV) under the public private partnership (PPP) mode on the available land with the railways.

Moreover, the railways will be setting up three new units at an estimated cost of Rs 380 crore to meet the demand along the eastern industrial corridor, which include rolling stock production and assembly facilities and coach rehabilitation units at Dankuni, Majerhat and Naopara in this region.

“The proposal to acquire 18,000 wagons in 2009-10 would definitely generate higher demand for the wagon industry and would also help in turning up the industry from what it was earlier”, said Rajiv Jyothi, MD Bombardier Transportation.

On the proposal of setting up new coach factory he said, “Currently there is an increasing demand for EMU’s and MEMu’s in metros like Mumbai and Chennai, which is difficult to be met by the existing capacity of integral coach factory (ICF) at Chennai where it is currently manufactured. This provide opportunities for private players to step in”.

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