Two Chinese companies are among four bidders for setting up a modern diesel locomotive factory at Marohra in Bihar.
CNR Corporation and CSR Corporation, both from China, have submitted qualifying bids for the proposed Rs 1500-crore factory, said a senior Railway Ministry official here adding today was the last date for submission of RFQ applications.
Two other multinational companies which have submitted the RFQ (request for quotation) proposals are GE Global and Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD).
Incidentally, the two Chinese companies are also in the race to bag the Madhepura electric locomotive project.
Besides the Chinese, the other international bidder to have shown interest for both diesel and electric locomotive factories is GE Global.
Railways have sought RFQ for setting up two locomotive factories in Bihar in PPP model.
In the course of about 10 years after commissioning, the proposed Marhora plant is expected to manufacture about a thousand diesel-electric locomotives, 100 locomotives per year.
While 700 locomotives will be equipped with 4500 horse power (HP), 300 diesel locomotives will be manufactured with 6000 HP, said the official.
The Madhepura factory is projected to complete some 800 electric locomotives over the same period.
The proposals for setting up two factories in Bihar were announced during the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in 2008.
However, there were many changes in the bidding documents, including terms and conditions of the mega projects over the years, and finally the documents were finalised with due dilligence, said the official.
In order to give a boost to the infrastructure sector, setting up of these two factories on PPP mode is crucial for the current economic scenario and the PMO is also monitoring these projects.
