'Indian Rlys self-sufficient in rolling stocks'

Indian Railways is already self-sufficient in the production of locomotives, passenger coaches and goods wagons.

From what was over 1,000 passenger coaches short for at the beginning of the last fiscal, the deficit of passenger coaches has now diminished to less than 500 coaches, said R Velu, Union minister of state for railways.

The minister was addressing media persons after inaugurating the refurbished VIP lounge and pay-and-use waiting halls at Tiruchirapalli recently.

The railway ministry is initiating aggressive steps to step up internal production of various manufacturing units. The integrated coach factory at Sriperumbudur near Chennai would increase the production capacity to 1,500 coaches per year, from 1,000 units maintained till recently.

For the upcoming passenger coaches production factory at Rae Bareiley at an outlay of Rs 2,200 crore with an initial capacity of 1,000 coaches per year, the land acquirement process has already commenced, the minister said, adding that the production at the factory would commence within two years from now.

Velu pointed out that the ministry should give preference to south Central Railways, which is more a freight oriented zone while Southern Railways was popular only with passenger traffic.

He, however, said that GM 4000 HP locos would be allocated to Southern Railways soon. According to the minister, the railways had improved on freight earnings and has registered a 16 per cent increase in the current fiscal.

The Chennai Central"�Chennai Egmore Station project has been reviewed and a new project report has been prepared by Rail India Technical and Economical Services Limited (RITES) Limited at the insistence of the minister.

RITES has given three types of proposals and in turn the railway ministry referred to the Tamil Nadu government for its views and support. The proposal would involve certain major earth works across the city, the minister added.