The chances of the take-off of the ₹550-crore rail coach factory at Kanjikode in Palakkad have diminished further with Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone for a ₹600-crore rail coach refurbishing factory at Sonepat in Haryana on Tuesday.
The efforts for Kanjikode unit, sanctioned in 2008-09 to overcome industrial backwardness of the State, have not succeeded despite intense lobbying when plans were afoot last year to shift it. “The setting up of a coach factory in Haryana has come as a surprise as Railways had been saying that more coach factories were not needed,” M.B. Rajesh, MP from Palakkad, told The Hindu on Tuesday.
In fact, Mr. Rajesh said, the Railway Minister had informed the Lok Sabha that the existing coach factories were sufficient to produce coaches needed for Railways.
“The big question is why they sanctioned a new one at Sonepat ignoring Kanjikode,” the CPI(M) MP said.
A wagon manufacturing unit at Cherthala, Angamaly-Sabarimala rail line, drinking water bottling plant, and railway medical college are some of the sanctioned railway mega projects failing to take off.
In the case of the coach factory, issues were over the project implementation mode and finding a joint venture partner. It is still a mystery why Railways rejected Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) offer of 74% equity. Railways also did not respond to initiatives of Mr. Rajesh.
The State provided 95.6 hectares to Railways for ₹33.70 crore in August 2012 and the latter had constructed a boundary wall to secure the land now in their possession. Steps to give another 37.1 hectares of forestland, as sought by Railways, had not gone ahead as the Union Ministry had not denotified the land despite a State request. In addition to the land price, Railways had invested ₹1.60 crore at Kanjikode for civil works.
The plan was to set up modern facilities for manufacturing annually 400 modern LHB-design stainless steel and state-of-the-art aluminium coaches in three years.