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| Burn Standard, Braithwaite await Railway Ministry nod for transfer |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Mar 03, 2010, 00:17 IST |
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The Department of Heavy Industries is awaiting inputs from the Railway ministry before approaching the Union Cabinet for approval to transfer wagon makers Burn Standard Company Ltd and Braithwaite. Last year in her budget, Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had proposed to bring Burn Standard, an ailing public sector unit under her ministry.
“We are expecting to receive comments from the Railway ministry in a week. Subsequently, we will add our part and a final note will be sent for approval of the cabinet,” Department of Heavy Industries secretary Satyanarayana Dash said.
While Dash was reluctant to discuss any definitive time-line for the transfer, he indicated that the move could happen early next fiscal. He said that the companies would be transferred to the Railways on a “clean slate basis” and, consequently, the Rs 1,400 crore and Rs 120 crore of liabilities that Burn Standard and Braithwaite are currently saddled with would not be passed on.
Burn Standard has three facilities, of which two wagon manufacturing units at Howrah and Burnpur are to be given to the Railways, while the third establishment — a refractory unit at Salem — is to be transferred to the Steel ministry. Although the firm has an installed capacity of about 15,000 wagons per annum, it is presently only manufacturing between 800-900 wagons annually.
Additionally, Braithwaite has two units — Clive Works and Victoria Works — in Kolkata and another facility in the Hoogly district of West Bengal.
Currently, the two companies are under Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Limited (BBUNL), a holding company that is under the administrative control of the Department of Heavy Industry, which the Railways is also mulling taking over.
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