Indian Railways is considering procuring ready-made trains from private companies instead of building them at its own production units.
Currently, Indian Railways has three manufacturing facilities, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) Chennai, Mordern Coach Factory (MCF) Raebareli and Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Kapurthala.
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According local media reports, the idea was put forward in a meeting attended by India’s Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and Minister of State of Railways Suresh C Angadi, as well as other top officials and manufacturers.
During the meeting, executives of private firms asked government representatives to consider procuring train sets, electric multiple units (EMU) and mainline electric multiple units (MEMU) from privately run companies.
It was agreed that the proposal will be reviewed.
All procurement should comply with the ‘Make in India’ policy, Goyal was quoted as saying.
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By GlobalDataFurthermore, Indian Railways disclosed that it is planning to roll out more than 2,000 rakes, such as the Vande Bharat train, in the next three years.
Indian Railways previously procured the trains that are run by Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), which were bought as a complete set from Alstom’s facility in Sri City.
An ICF senior official said: “We also make coaches for the Indian Army and several neighbouring countries. The manpower, infrastructure and technology of ICF is among the best in the world and the current target is to roll out 4,000 new coaches.”
