Indian Railways Plans To Manufacture 8,000 Locomotives, Coaches And Wagons In FY22; Eyes PLI Scheme's Benefits

Indian Railways will spend Rs 40,000 crore to manufacture 8,000 locomotives, coaches and wagons in FY22, a significant jump from 5000 that were built in FY21, reports Financial Express .

The national transporter had manufactured 7,000 locomotives, wagons and coaches in FY20. However, the Covid-19 pandemic decelerated the production process at Railways' coach factories in the ongoing financial year.

Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday (28 January) called for collaboration and investments from the industries to tranform the national transporter into a smart organization.

Speaking at the FICCI-organized ‘Smart Railway Conclave’, Goyal said, “I want Railways to be a modern, agile, safe, reliable part of the economy and make technology the overarching support system for logistics and transport in both passenger and freight business.”

Goyal pointed out the industry’s widespread smart solutions for the clearance of around 200 infrastructure projects that were put off from multiple years.

“A cargo train from Mumbai reaches Guwahati in approximately two and a half days compared to the earlier timeline of seven days. It has been a collective effort of industry and Railways which has helped to drive changes like faster speed for freight trains, extensive electrification of tracks to aid in total elimination of diesel ecosystem and shift from single tracks to double tracking,” Goyal was quoted as saying.

AK Chandra, executive director for mechanical/TC of the Railway Board said that Indian Railways is one of the strong contenders for the benefits under the government’s production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost India’s exports and manufacturing capabilities.

The PLI scheme has been launched for 10 key sectors and the industry is confident of some of these benefits favouring the railways especially in the steel and components sector.

Reportedly, this can assist the national transporter to go head-to-head with roadways that attracts the majority of automobile freight, a sector that has availed PLI-incentive worth Rs 57000 crore.

“We will certainly put forward our case very strongly. Productivity has always been at the forefront of our plans for manufacturing, in our rolling stock companies,” Chandra was quoted as saying.