Workers and others at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) have demanded the cancellation of a contract given to three companies in West Bengal to make railway coaches.
"A contract for supply of 308 coaches has been placed with three private companies - Titagarh Wagons, BESCO and Jessop - based in West Bengal," said S. Anandraj, convenor of Joint Action Committee (JAC) consisting of 11 trade unions.
"What is fishy is that the entire coach design, drawings and other technical specifications valued around Rs.1,500 crore have to be provided to the companies for them to roll out the coaches," he added.
He said ICF has also to provide materials like steel, traction equipment and wheel sets free to the three companies.
A senior ICF official told IANS: "Giving away the entire design, drawings and other technical specifications or the coach layout to a manufacturer is something new."
He said getting some parts made outside by giving the drawing is different from giving out the entire design and drawing to a manufacturer.
The unit located in Perambur here has a rated capacity to roll out 1,700 coaches per annum. In the last fiscal, it rolled out 1,601 coaches.
Anandraj said the tenders were floated in 2011 when the Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was the railway minister. The tenders were finalised in February 2013.
He said ICF and Rail Coach Factory (RCF) at Kapurthala can together make more than 400 coaches in a year at a much lower cost.
According to him, Rajya Sabha member T.K. Rangarajan has urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the outsourcing contracts.
