The project will be implemented on a private-public partnership basis. The Railways will pick up a maximum of 26 per cent equity stake in a special purpose vehicle to be floated for the purpose. The remaining equity will come from the foreign partner.
The initial capital cost of the factory, as estimated by the Indian Railways, is Rs 1,000 crore. But industry experts say that the actual cost could go up in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 crore factoring in to account the increase in the prices of critical components like steel, iron, cement, fuel among others.
The top international companies were all present in a pre-application conference, which was held at Rail Bhawan on Friday.
Rajeev Jyoti, MD, Bombardier Transportation, said, "We are very eager to associate with the project. Since the agreement will be for a long-term basis, we will have to carefully evaluate the commercial, legal and technical aspects before participating in the bidding process."
Similarly, a top executive of Alstom Transportation, who did not want to be named, also expressed interest in participating in the proposed project. The factory will be set up on a build, own and operate (BOO) basis for the production and supply of a minimum of 660 locomotives over a period of eight years. and undertake maintenance thereof for a period of up to 20 years.
The Indian railways will be subscribing to its equity for up to a maximum of 26 per cent of the issued and paid up equity capital of the company,subject to a maximum of Rs 100 crore.
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A Rail Bhawan official said that the project is receiving a good response from global locomotive manufacturers and they are expecting a minimum of 5-6 major players in the final bidding process.
The due date for the application of request for qualification (RFQ) is on July 18, 2008 and the shortlisting of applicants will be done within 15 days from the application due date.
With the commissioning of the project, railway officials say that the Indian railway will be upgrading its technology to the next generation, where the new locomotive which will have 12,000 horsepower will have the capacity to pull a higher pay load at a much higher speed of 100 km per hour. This will enable the Indian Railways to cut down their operational and maintenance cost.
thereby increasing productivity. Currently, Railways operate electric locomotives with 6000 horsepower capacity having a speed of 80 km per hour.