High allocation for replacing older rolling stock

Double-decker AC coaches sought for inter-city travel.

The railways aren’t projecting significant growth in their freight target, but plan to acquire 18,000 wagons this year as against 11,000 wagons during 2008-09. Total spending on rolling stock — constitutes locomotives, coaches and wagons — will be 9 per cent higher at Rs 12,393 crore during 2009-10 over the previous year.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has increased the allocation for rolling stock by 19 per cent over the Interim Budget, which had committed Rs 10,396.6 crore for the purpose.

Investment in rolling stock is a key requirement for handling more traffic, though a major portion of the allocation goes towards replacing older vehicles.

Additional investment is also expected to come from the private sector, since the railways plan to promote private ownership of special purpose rolling stock for commodities.

With wagon procurement often a difficult task, especially since the industry is plagued by losses and is dependent on railway orders for existence, the minister announced plans to take over the wagon units of Burn Standard and Braithwate.

The target for coaches has also been increased to 2,995 from 2,895 last year. The railways manufacture coaches at the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, and the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. An interesting feature to be introduced is high capacity, air conditioned, double-decker coaches for inter-city travel. “These will have superior riding quality and comfort,” said the minister in her speech today. The idea may be novel but an attempt to introduce double-deck container trains has so far not made much headway, especially since it is difficult to run such trains on electrified territories that have high-tension overhead wires.