Aluminium wagons to be procured

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

New Delhi, Dec 17: Amidst escalating steel price which is likely to increase the expenditure of railways by Rs 400 crore this fiscal, the government on Friday said plans were afoot to float global tenders to procure 240 wagons and 60 coaches made of aluminium.

Minister of state for railways R Velu said an order had been given to manufacture prototype of aluminium wagon by a Kolkata-based company.

He said railways would have to incur an estimated extra expenditure of about Rs 400 crore on procurement of steel due to increase in steel prices.

He said it had also been decided to manufacture aluminium wagons, in a limited way, and 750 four wheeler units of aluminium wagons are planned to be manufactured during 2005-06.

He said global tenders were planned for procurement of 200 wagons and 60 coaches of aluminium from abroad.

He said the aluminium wagons would be lighter in weight and would have higher capacity and that countries like the US and the UK were using such bogies for their railways.

Mr Velu said the aluminium bogies would be properly insulated from fire as the metal is a good conductor of electricity.

Agri wastage: Rs 50,000 crore is lost every year due to wastages in horticulture, agriculture and milk production.

Agriculture minister Sha-rad Pawar said while there was a loss of 1% in milk output, losses of between 30% and 40% are recorded in horticulture and 10% in foodgrain output.

He said the kharif output of 100 million tonne this year would be 13 million tonne less than last year.

To offset the shortfall, more stress was being laid on rabi campaign, he said adding steps had been taken to provide adequate irrigation, power, fertiliser, seeds and rural agriculture credit to farmers.

There will be a grant of Rs 1 crore and one silver plaque to the best performing state in each of the five groups of the states, Mr Pawar said.

He said foograin output was estimated to touch 212 million tonne this year.

Horticulture: The Centre is considering to enhance horticulture production by addressing the issues on research, plantation development, post-harvest management, processing and marketing.

Coverage of new areas under horticulture with improved varieties has also been envisaged under the ‘mission’, minister of state for agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria said.