Rail budget: Mixed bag for wagon majors

Wagon makers cheered the first Railway budget presented by the Narendra Modi-government for laying foundation for the long term future but rued the absence of wagon procurement details.
"There was no mention of wagon procurement in the budget so we have to wait for details. However, the budget talks about making the Railways the largest freight carrying network in the world which is very encouraging for companies like us as it provides scope for a lot of investment in the sector," Titagarh Wagons Ltd Managing Director Umesh Chowdhary said.
Texmaco Rail and Engineering Executive Vice Chairman Ramesh Maheswari said, "This budget has laid foundation for the long term future.

"The wagon leasing scheme, the PPP route for attracting private investment, 100 per cent FDI in approved rail segments and accelerated pace of completion of dedicated freight corridor and other projects will lead to higher investment in rolling stock will bring cheer to our industry," he said.
Both the firms believe that with time bound implementations of railway projects, there would be immense business for both the government and private sector.
There was inadequate rolling stock order from the Railways for the past two years at an average of 8,000 wagons from the peak of 18,000.
Last year Texmaco had blamed the government for not releasing rolling stock order leading to under-utilised capacity.

Chowdhary said "With loading projection of 4.9 per cent, I do not forsee any major jump in wagon orders.