Indian Railways intends to invite the financial bids for setting up of the diesel locomotive unit on a joint venture basis at Marhowra on September 1 this year.
The shortlisted players for the diesel loco factory to be set up at Marhowra, Bihar are GE and EMD. Hemant Kumar, Member-Electrical, said this in a media briefing here today.
Kumar added that Railways intends to fit 17,000 biotoilets in about 4,250 coaches this year (2015-16) to open discharge of faecal matter on the track. Fitting each coach with four such biotoilets cost Rs 3 lakh. Railways have about 60,000 broad gauge coaches, which require over Rs 2,000 crore at the current cost.
Railway also plans to acquire about 1,800 wagons from Jindal Infrastructure, according to Kumar. “This year, we will procure 8,500 wagons. Orders for 1,800 wagons have been released to Jindal, while counter offer is given to other players to match the price,” he said.
Last year, railways had procured wagons at over Rs 11 lakh a wagon, while this year, the price per wagon is over Rs 10 lakh, said railway officials without getting into specifics.