Nagpur: MahaMetro’s plan to set up a coach factory near the city has been put in the cold storage due to lack of land and reluctance of private parties to set up the plant just for assembling 75 coaches. MahaMetro managing director Brijesh Dixit, however, said that the plan was still not off the table.
Sources in MahaMetro said that the agency was buying 102 coaches for Pune Metro. As per the tender conditions, 75% coaches were to be assembled at the Nagpur plant. However, coach suppliers told MahaMetro that setting up an assembly plant for just 75 coaches was not viable.
Secondly, neither Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which is building a dry port in Sindi nor MIDC agreed to provide land to MahaMetro for the plant. This means that the coach supplier has to buy private land, which is a very costly and cumbersome process.
MahaMetro had engaged Tooltech Global Engineering for preparing the detailed project report (DPR) of the plant. As per the DPR, a full fledged coach manufacturing plant was to cost Rs1,300 crore and generate 1,350 direct jobs.
The plant was to be constructed in three phases. In the first phase, coaches would be produced by the private partner while its final assembly, commissioning and testing would take place at the plant. In the second phase, most of the parts would be provided by the partner which, would be welded in the plant. The coaches would be painted in the plant too. In the third phase, coaches would be completely manufactured in the plant.
The first phase entailed an investment of Rs440 crore, second Rs380 crore and third Rs480 crore. The first phase was to provide direct jobs to 200 people, second 400 and third 750. Out of the 200 jobs in the first phase, 70 were blue collared while 130 were white collared.
MahaMetro had sought 50 acre land for the plant from JNPT and MIDC. Of this, 30 acre was required for the factory while 20 acre was to be kept aside for future expansion.
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), which is supplying coaches to Nagpur Metro, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government for setting up a coach manufacturing plant in Butibori in 2016. However, nothing came out of it.