Railways is embarking on public private model joint venture partnership to produce 1,000 units each of diesel and electric locomotives over 10 years to enhance their rolling stock, according to a Railway Board member.
"It is also planning another JV to produce rolling stock, concentrating on self-propelled vehicles, on the surplus land near Kancharpara Railway Workshop in West Bengal," Praveen Kumar, Member Railway Board (Mechanical), said here.
Partners for these JVs have been shortlisted among global contenders, Kumar added, saying the JVs would be among world leaders in the respective product development.
He said Railways had taken these steps to maintain the steep growth in passenger and freight traffic.
The Railway board member added more funds were needed for production and maintenance of rolling stock.
He said in-house production of locomotives had reached optimum level, with diesel locomotive works at Varanasi and Chitranjan Locomotives in West Bengal producing at their capacity of 250 units each a year. However, modernisation and expansion of these units was not in the pipeline.
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Kumar said Railways added 13,000 freight wagons in 2008 and plans to acquire 18,000 units this year.
To a question on the status of the Rs 1,215 crore coach project coming up at Palakkad in Kerala to manufacture passenger wagons, he added the state government was finding it difficult to acquire the necessary 1,000 acres at the proposed venue.
Hence, Railways has proposed to work out the project on a lesser acreage.
The Railway Ministry was also working on installing an industrial belt across the length and breadth of India, fully dedicated to freight mobilization. This is in addition to two freight corridors on the Eastern and Western sectors with funding invited from foreign agencies.
For the Western Corridor, Japanese investors have shown keen interest, he said, and hoped that major inputs on infrastructure and operating system of freight loading would be made feasible in the next few years.
Chief Mechanical Engineer (Workshops), Southern Railways, said orders for supply of six refurbished diesel locomotives, to Benin Railway Administration in Africa, were expected within four weeks.
The locomotives were refurbished at Goldenrock Workshop, which has so far exported 119 metre gauge diesel locomotives to various countries, Kumar said.
Earlier, he had flagged off a refurbished meter gauge locomotive to Mozambique. The workshop had carried out 14 modifications in the locomotive as sought by Mozambique.
Three refurbished passenger coaches of Nilgiris Mountain Railway were also dispatched.