Decks cleared for formal commissioning of Rs 1,685 crore Rae Bareli coach factory

NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for putting the Rs 1,685 crore Rae Bareli coach factory on fast track mode.

Railways have just released Rs 150 crore for the factory and preparations are afoot for the formal commissioning of it by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi shortly.

"There is a need for Rs 400 crore in the current year for the Rae Bareli factory as the unit has to acquire modern machinery and equipment for manufacturing LHB coaches in a full-fledged manner," said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.

"However, because of the fund constraint," the official said "Rs 150 crore could be released only this month."

The project has received a push after CP Joshi took charge of the Railway Ministry.

The Rae Bareli coach factory is expected to cater to Railways' increasing demand for coaches by annually rolling out about 1,000 LHB coaches.

Railways have agreed to provide jobs to about 1400 persons in compensation for the land acquired for the Rae Bareli coach factory, putting an end to the deadlock over the issue.

The process of issuing appointment letters is on, said the official.

According to the policy, jobs will be given to the land owners in 'Group D' category.

Railways had acquired 541 hectares of land for the coach factory out of which 283 hectares belonged to private land owners.

Currently, the factory is engaged only in assembling LHB coaches.

At present, the bogies and body of stainless coaches are being supplied by Kapurthala Coach factory and "once the required machinery is acquired, it will manufacture modern coaches," the official said, adding, "IRCON has been given the responsibility to execute the project..

The factory has rolled out 21 AC coaches till now and a dozen more are being readied to be added in the LHB fleet.

The existing mild steel coaches in trains will gradually be replaced by high quality stainless steel bodied high speed coaches (LHB coaches), as in the Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains presently.

"These coaches have higher carrying capacity and passenger comfort and are safer in operations with features like more efficient disc brakes and centre buffer couplers with superior anti-climbing features," he said.

Apart from resistance to corrosion, these coaches have modular fittings, microprocessor controlled air conditioning, environment friendly controlled discharge toilet systems.

While foundation stone for the Rae Bareli coach factory was laid by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on February 13, 2007, the inauguration for construction of the factory was done by her on January 27, 2009.

The manufacturing of coaches at Rae Bareli factory is crucial for Railways as the national transporter depends upon it to meet its growing requirement.