The Minister for Railways, Mamata Banerjee, has proposed some new initiatives to further expand rail-based industries in the Railway budget speech for 2011-12.
In Jammu & Kashmir, the minister proposed to set up a bridge factory.
She said the prestigious Jammu Kashmir rail link project involves a large number of bridges and her Ministry proposes to dedicate an industry for the people of J&K.
The minister said this industry will help in developing ancillary industries leading to employment generation in the area.
Banerjee also proposed to set up a state-of-the-art Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering at Jammu.
She said as per her announcement to set up a coach factory at Singur, land has not been made available by the state government.
However, the minister said several landowners have volunteered to sell their land directly to the Railways.
To fulfil the commitment, the minister said she proposes to set up a metro coach factory on the land purchased from willing sellers at Singur/adjacent Polba.
Regarding the Northeast, the minister said Imphal, the capital of Manipur, will soon be connected to the railway network.
As an advance planning, the Ministry proposes to set up a diesel locomotive centre in Manipur.
Banerjee also announced proposal to open a Centre of Excellence in software at Darjeeling under the aegis of Centre for Railway Information Systems.
The minister also proposed to set up two more wagon units under Joint Venture/Public Private Partnership mode, one each Kolar and Alappuzha, Kerala and one more at Buniadpur.
Banerjee proposed to pursue a joint venture between Railways and a partner to set up a manufacturing industry for the indigenous production of large on-track machines at Uluberia.
She also proposed to set up a new track machine POH facility at the same place.
The minister also announced setting up of a 'Rail Industrial Park' at Jellingham. She said the proposed Park will be a cluster of diverse industrial units whose output will be consumed by the Railways.
The Park will initially focus on high volume safety and vital components. The minister said with this, the country shall make a beginning towards creating a global hub in India for the Railway industry.
She said a unit to manufacture car steel bogies and couplers through a joint venture between Burn Standard Co. Ltd and SAIL has already been initiated in this Park. She also proposes to set up a Rail Industrial Park at New Bongaigaon.
To meet the electrical energy requirement of Railways which is growing rapidly with the expansion of the rail infrastructure and traffic, the minister proposed to set up a 700 MW gas-based power plant at Thakurli in Maharashtra, depending upon the fuel being made available at economic cost.
She said a captive thermal power plant of 1000 MW at Nabinagar is at an advance stage of construction. A second thermal power plant of 1,320 MW capacity at Adra is in process of being set up.
The Railway Minister also proposed to set up more mechanised laundries for improving the quality of linen in trains at Nagpur, Chandigarh and Bhopal, in addition to Wadibunder, Tikiyapara, Kamakhya, Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Indore, Lucknow, Banaras, Samastipur, Sealdah, Tatanagar, Danapur, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Durg, Hatia, Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, where they are commissioned or are being set up. She said proposals for laundries at Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Gwalior, Manduadih, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, New Jalpaiguri, Jammu, Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Tirupati, Ernakulum, Thiruvananthapuram, Hubli, Bengaluru, Yashwantpur, Jabalpur, Allahabad, Mau, Amethi and Kota are also under examination.
Source: PIB