The two projects were among many launched by the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for Bihar.

According to Mint report a senior railway ministry official and two industry executives with direct knowledge of the matter, said the Railways now wants to push ahead with a proposed locomotive unit at Dankuni in West Bengal, which would be built to supply engines for the eastern and western wings of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

The Railways is constructing DFC with help from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank. The locomotives are likely to be manufactured at Dankuni with technology from two Japanese companies—Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.

The railway official and one of the industry executives, who wished not to be identified, said the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had informally asked Kul Bhushan, member (electrical) on the Railway Board, to expedite the Dankuni project and keep the two projects in Bihar on hold, at least for the time being.

Another senior railway official independently confirmed to the business daily that the meeting involving Banerjee and Bhushan did take place. But Bhushan declined to comment on the matter.

Mint could not independently verify what exactly transpired at the informal April meeting.

The other industry official said railway officials had informally told him that the Dankuni project was being fast-tracked and so the two projects in Bihar were likely to be taken up only after that. “The last we formally heard from the railways on the two projects was in November-December last year. Since then, there has been no official word,” he said.

The report said that the proposed plant at Dankuni is expected to be developed on the lines of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, which is also situated in West Bengal. It will have a capacity to manufacture 200 locomotives a year, the same as the proposed units at Madhepura and Marhowra together. “So, there is a good chance that the two projects may eventually be shelved, if the Dankuni project takes off,” the second industry official said.

Several other railway officials said Mamata Banerjee still wields influence in the ministry. But no official decision to put the cabinet-approved projects on the back-burner has actually been taken yet.

In fact, any such decision is unlikely to be taken unilaterally by the railway ministry since it involves other arms of the government, including the Planning Commission, the finance ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The total estimated value of the Bihar project contracts for 800 electric engines and 1,000 diesel ones is around Rs 70,590 crore today. The value of the projects is based on the price of the engines, design costs and expenditure on establishing the proposed units.

On 23 March 2011, The Financial Express newspaper, citing unnamed government officials, said that the Planning Commission and PMO were monitoring the Marhowra project closely, after information that one of the bidders was trying to influence the bidding process for the project.

Mint first reported on 27 June 2011 that there were serious differences between the finance and railway ministries over several aspects of the draft documents, including the price the companies can charge for the engines.

Following this, on 12 March 2012, The Pioneer newspaper reported that the railway and finance ministries were opposed to the Plan panel’s suggestions to alter the cabinet-approved bid documents and supply conditions, saying that these changes would put an extra burden of Rs.16,405 crore on the exchequer. Mint has reviewed the documents cited by The Pioneer.

Whatever be the fate of the two locomotive industries meant for Bihar the issue has raised several important questions. In what capacity Mamata Banerjee is still influencing officials in the Railway Ministry? Is Mukul Roy incompetent to do that though he too belongs to the Trinamool Congress? How can all this happen without the knowledge of the Prime Minister Office?

Lastly, why is it that the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar not protesting against Mamata Banerjee’s role? He talks of investment in Bihar, wastes no time in demanding special status for the state, but when such big railway projects are being taken away––or are in the process of being snatched––he is maintaining silence. Is it because the two projects were the brainchild of the arch political rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav?

Comment

comments...