The biggest beneficiary has been the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli new line.
When it rains, it pours is a phrase the engineers at Central Railway are getting used to. In a rare instance, Central Railway (CR) announced work orders worth Rs.225 crores in a span of 48 hours. On Friday CR's construction department came out with tenders worth Rs.105 crores for the Kalyan-Kasara third line project while on Thursday it had announced work orders of Rs.120 crores for the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli new line project.
July alone has seen work orders amounting to almost Rs.550 crores being issued, good enough to keep the construction department of CR busy for a couple of years to come. While the railways does not keep these kind of records to know whether this was the highest amount of work orders issued for a single month, officials speaking to dna agreed that it is a kickstart that has come after several years.
The biggest beneficiary has been the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli new line. A total of Rs.300 crores of the project cost of Rs.2826 crores has been allotted within a month, or around 11% of its total cost.
July has also seen work orders of Rs.96 crores for the elevated Kurla harbour station and Rs.38 crores for Panvel terminus, both projects on the drawing board for almost a decade now.
"For years the common refrain was that there was no money with the railways. The new thought process is to divert money to projects that will give returns quickly in terms of passenger satisfaction as well as revenue. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has made far-reaching changes in the way top-level officials like the general manager as well as members of the Railway Board can deal with even large tenders upwards of Rs.100 crores. We believe the streamlined processes will be attractive for firms to carry out these works," said a top ranking railway official.
However, officials tempered the issue with caution saying the optimism would work out only if the work orders get adequate number of firms vying for it. This will come about around August-September when the tenders of these works will be awarded. "No point if the railways keeps coming up with big tenders and we don't get firms to carry out the works," said an official.
Exactly a year ago, on July 12 dna had highlighted how the railways was getting no bidders for projects in the range of Rs.35 crores. The thinking in the railways at that time was that a poor economy was stopping mid-level engineering firms, the kind that mostly participate in railway projects, from spreading their resources too thin.
Projects galore:
July 4 - Rs.96 crore Kurla elevated harbour station order
July 19 - Rs.177 crores order for Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli project
July 21 - Rs.38 crores tender for Panvel terminus project
July 30 - Rs.120 crore order for Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli project
July 31 - Rs.105 crores for the Kalyan-Kasara 3rd line project
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