Proposed as a joint venture, the facility will have capacity to manufacture 400 aluminum coaches annually. Request for Qualification (RFQ) will be opened next week and the process of short-listing bidders will be completed by March 2014. The factory is planned to become operational in three years.
IR plans to contribute 26% equity in the project, which will take up a 96.3 hectare site. The Railways have already acquired land for the project.
The new coach factory was included in the Railway budget of 2008-09, but has remained on the backburner until now.
An inter-ministerial group of officers has approved the draft RFQ, which will be uploaded onto the official website IR (www.indianrailways.gov.in).
• Bombardier, Siemens and CSR are among six companies that have shown interest in participating in IR's project to build a new electric loco factory at Madhepura in Bihar after the request for qualification documents were opened today. Financial bids for the project will be invited by January.
