Goyal credits Modi with turnaround of Rae Bareli coach factory, targets Congress

Goyal, who was replying to the debate on demands for grants of railway ministry, said the coach factory had produced 1425 coaches in 2018-19 against its capacity of 1,000 due to directions of Modi and the target was to make it the biggest coach factory in the world which produced 5,000 coaches annually.

The minister said the government has planned to corporatise MCF to bring new technology and investment.

He said there were several examples in railways which reflected government's "namumkin mumkin hai (impossible is possible) spirit".

Sonia Gandhi had earlier this month opposed corporatisation of Modern Coach Factory and said it was the first step towards privatization.

 

He said the MCF was an example of how work was done earlier and how it was being done under the Modi government.

As Goyal mentioned that work on MCF started in 2007-08 but not a single coach was manufactured till 2014, some BJP members raised slogans against the Congress.

He said appointments had not been made and when NDA government came to power, the "serious issue" came up before the prime minister who directed filling of requisite vacancies and commencement of production.

Goyal said the first coach came out in August 2014 and production was increased every year.

He said against the production capacity of 1,000 coaches, 711 were manufactured in 2017-18.

Goyal said normally there is chest-thumping if 70 per cent capacity utilization but the prime minister is never satisfied with the progress achieved.

Goyal said Modi asked him why more coaches cannot be built and decided to visit the factory himself.

He said Modi took a round of the factory, talked to employees and engineers and directed that production should be doubled next year.

"In 2018-19, we built 1425 coaches against the capacity of 1,000 coaches. I can give thousands of examples of "namumkin (ab) mumkin hai" in railways.

"We are keen to invest more, bring new technology and we have planned to corporatise it," he said.

The minister said the government is keen that Rae Bareli coach factory has a capacity of 5,000 coaches and is the biggest factory in the world, adding that it also gives a boost to employment and exports.