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"Unfortunately, the railways' wagon procurement continues to be erratic and suffers from unending delays," said R Maheswari, executive vice-chairman of Texmaco, a K K Birla group company. "As for 2012-13, though the Budget was passed in February 2012, even the tender is yet to be invited. Consequently, the industry's capacity is going begging and it is almost in a perpetual state of crisis."
The railways did not place any orders against the approved Budget for 2010-11. The industry is executing the 2011-12 orders. The wagon procurement order book for the year was 15,000.
The wagon industry is largely dominated by private players, such as Texmaco, Titagarh Wagons and Cimmco, contributing about 80 per cent of the requirement.
Umesh Chowdhary, vice-chairman and MD, Titagarh Wagons, is expecting a higher procurement target in the Budget. "According to Vision 2020, the wagon annual procurement should be 29,000. We need to reach that point.
"Railways is in a vicious cycle now. There needs to be some policy initiatives. The high-speed train, dedicated freight corridor, private train operations �" all these need to be taken up."
In the last few Budgets, the railways had announced setting up of their own wagon manufacturing unit, though there has been hardly any progress in the project. "There is already over-capacity. I do not think the railways will be going to move in this direction this time. That will be a complete waste of public money," Chowdhary said.
A day ahead of the Railway Budget, shares of Texmaco Rail and Engineering today rose 3.5 per cent at Rs 62.1 on the BSE. Shares of Titagah Wagons, however, was down by 5.2 per cent at Rs 267.2. Cimmco today ended 4.7 per cent down at Rs 36.2 on the BSE.
