Leading wagon manufacturing companies such as Titagarah Wagons and Texmaco have shown interest in the Kanchrapara rail project, which once operational will roll out 500 coaches for railways per annum The railway coach manufacturing unit to come up in Kanchrapara in the Nadia district of West Bengal has received considerable fillip with the Ministry of Railways setting July 24, 2010 as thedeadline for the submission of request for qualification (RFQ) by private companies interested to participate in the project. The foundation stone of the project was laid in March and the upcoming unit would manufacture coaches for electric multiple unit (EMU) and mainline electric multiple (MEMU) trains.
Leading coach manufacturing firms in the country such as Titagarh Wagons and Texmaco have shown interest in the project, which will be a joint venture (JV) between railways and the participating company. While the former will hold 26% stake in the JV, the remaining 74% will be held by the latter.
 Project to promote industrial growth of the state
The Railway Ministry’s effort to hasten the project has received thumbs up from manufacturing firms operating in the state that believe the project will play a significant role in generating employment in the state. According to Karan Goel, technical head of Goswami Industrial Corporation, a small-sized manufacturer of railway parts in Kolkata, “The Kanchrapara coach project is one of the most ambitious projects announced in this year’s Rail Budget. The project augurs well for economic prosperity and industrialisation of Bengal, the image of which has been marred due to several unfortunate incidents in the past.”
The Kanchrapara unit, once operational, will roll out 500 coaches for railways every year. In this context, Manish Sehgal, director of Technocrat Engineering, a small-sized manufacturer of railway parts in Kolkata, says, “The manufacturing unit will play an instrumental role in rolling out high-tech coaches, which is very important for Kolkata metro rail service. Currently, most of the rakes plying between Dum Dum and Kavi Najrul route are outdated, and suffer from technical snags.”
It must be noted that the Kacharapara rail coach project is one of the biggest to be undertaken in the state after establishment of the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works in 1947.
Arup Choudhury |
