Railways to acquire 275 acres of land for Madhepura loco plant

Railways will acquire 275 acres of land in Madhepura in Bihar for setting up the modern electric locomotive factory.
"There will be a total 275 acre of land to be acquired for the Madhepura factory and we are on the job," Railway Board Member (Electrical) Navin Tandon said here today.
French major Alstom has got the contract to set up the electric locomotive factory in Bihar at an estimated cost of Rs 1296 crore and it is railways' responsibility to acquire the land for the project.
While 120 acre is required for setting up of the factory, 155 acres will be utilised for building township as per the project requirement.

"We will pay compensation under the Railways Act and compensation money has been deposited with the state government," said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project, adding "Till now about 60 acres have been acquired and rest will be in due course."
Dubbed as first major project under 'Make in India' initiative in the public transporter, Alstom will manufacture 800 locomotives over the next 10 years in Bihar.

This is a biggest FDI for Alstom in transportation sector, said Bharat Salhotra, Alstom India Managing Director.
Asked about how much FDI Alstom will bring in for the project, Salhotra said "It will in the vicinity of Rs 500 crore."

While five locos will be imported, the rest 795 will be manufactured at Madhepura as part of the project. Maintenance of the locos will also be the responsibility of the company and for this it will set up two maintenance sheds at Nagpur and Sharanpur.
The factory will produce locos with 12,000 horse power required for heavy hauling of goods in a faster speed on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. Currently 6000 HP electric locos are operational in the rail network.
Railways will sign the land lease for 30 years with the bidder company on normal market rent.
As per the bidding condition, land has to be handed over within 90 days of awarding the contract and the total contract will be for about for 18 years.

Tandon said the contract agreement will be signed within 30 days.
There will two maintenance sheds to be set up at Nagpur and Saharanpur for the state-of-the-art locomotives.
The Madhepura unit will also be allowed to export locos after fulfilling railways demands.