• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Port Info

• Ships in Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• The Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Kolkata , Feb. 11

THE Railways Board proposes to procure 24,640 wagons (in terms of four-wheelers) in 2005-06 and has accordingly invited bids from wagon manufacturers, both in the private and public sectors.

The last date for submitting the bids is February 18.

In the past three years, the Railways orders for wagons (all in terms of four-wheelers) were as follows: 20,637.5 units (6,582.5 with public sector and 14,055 with private sector firms) in 2004-05; 16,052.5 units (7,382.5 with public sector and 8,670 with private sector firms) in 2003-04; and 14,575 units (6,687.5 with public sector and 7,887.5 with private sector firms) in 2002-03.

One interesting feature of the tender floated for 2005-06 is that the Railways has included bogies and couplers also in the list of free supply items, i.e. the items supplied by the Railways free-of-cost to the wagon manufacturers.

The public sector wagon manufacturers include Jessop, Burn Standard (two units, both in West Bengal, at Howrah and Burnpur), Braithwaite, Bridge & Roof and Bharat Wagons (two units, both in Bihar, at Muzaffarpur and Mokama) while the private sector firms include Texmaco, Tatagarh Steel, Besco, HEI and Modern Industries.

More than 40 per cent of the orders are placed with public sector units and the balance around 60 per cent with private sector units.

The record of despatches of wagons by the industry in general is not something to crow about as there will always be some backlog at the end of every fiscal.

One reason for this is the not-so-satisfactory performance of the public sector units for whatever reasons.

However, the delayed placement of orders by the Railways too has a lot to do with it.

As sources close to the wagon industry complain, the first quarter every fiscal is virtually lost due to the delayed placement of the orders and delayed arrivals of the free supply items.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Indian Airlines extends schemes

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line