Railways shortlist bidders for West Bengal projects

Siemens, GE, Bombardier and Alstom, all leading makers of rail rolling stock, have made it to the final race for setting up a locomotive manufacturing unit at Dankuni in West Bengal.

Additionally, Siemens, Alstom, Rotem CAF and Bombardier have been shortlisted by the railways ministry for developing a facility to manufacture Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) and metro coaches at Kanchchrapara in West Bengal, said a person close to the development.

The project at Dankuni, to come up at a cost of Rs110 crore, entails the supply of bodies to equip 800 locomotives to be assembled at the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, West Bengal. The ministry has allocated Rs25 crore in Rail Budget 2010-11 for developing the facility.

The unit at Kanchchrapara, proposed as a joint venture with Indian Railways (IR), would roll out 5,000 units of EMUs, MEMUs and metro coaches over 10 years. A senior executive in one of the companies said he expected both projects to be awarded by the end of the year.

IR would invest Rs760 crore towards developing the facility at Kanchchrapara and the private company awarded the contract would contribute another Rs100 crore. The ministry has allocated Rs20 crore for the unit at Kanchchrapara in the budget this year. The remaining Rs740 crore is yet to be arranged.

Both projects were announced by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Rail Budget she presented in July 2009.

GE, Siemens, Alstom and Bombardier were also shortlisted recently for setting up a Rs1,960-crore electric locomotive manufacturing unit at Madhepura in Bihar.

The decisions come on the back of criticism the ministry is facing for delays in award of projects to be developed for meeting IR’s rolling stock requirements. The ministry had initially planned to develop locomotive manufacturing units at Marhouwra and Madhepura, a coach factory at Rae Bareilly and a wheel manufacturing facility at Chhapra by 2012. The total cost of building these has been estimated at over Rs8,400 crore.

However, in the first four years of the 2007-12 plan period, the ministry has managed to allocate less than 20 per cent of the projected cost, at around Rs1,600 crore. Ministry sources indicate due to paucity of resources it may not be possible to meet the 2012 deadline.