The Union railway ministry has shortlisted four firms for award of a contract for the proposed electric locomotive unit in Madhepura in Bihar, industry sources said. The four firms are Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier and GE.
However, no announcement has yet been made on the diesel locomotive unit plant in Marhowra, also in Bihar.
Both projects were announced by former railway minister Lalu Prasad in the 2007-08 Railway Budget. However, the projects, requiring investments worth Rs 1,300 crore each, could not generate investor interest.
Experts feel that since there has been a delay of more than three years from the original date of announcement of the projects, cost escalation cannot be ruled out.
Railway ministry officials are non-committal on the issue as of now. The ministry is hopeful of awarding both projects by the end of this calendar.
“We are likely to finalise the contracts by the year-end,” a top railway ministry official told DNA.
The Railways is looking at procuring 690 diesel locomotives and 555 electric locomotives by 2012. The Vision 2020 document pegs the procurement target at 5,334 locomotives, 4,281 electric locomotives and 50,880 passenger coaches.
On the coach front, the ministry plans to double production of passenger coaches in the next three years to 5,000 units per annum from 2,500 at present. Production will be scaled up to 10,000 units per annum.
Post the announcement in 2007, the Railways planned to develop the greenfield units on public-private-partnership basis for procurement of 8,000 locomotives over eight years. However, the project got only one non-compliant bid till the last leg of Lalu’s ministership.
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