Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has finally given green signal to two long stalled, big-ticket Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals for setting up state-of-the art diesel and electric locomotive manufacturing plant in Bihar at a cost of Rs 2,400 crore. The move is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign. Also, the two projects are among top eight infrastructure projects being monitored by the PMO.
Finally putting an end to the suspense over Madhepura electric locomotive plant and Marhora diesel locomotive plant, Railways has finalized the financial bidding for the high-value joint venture projects after much of consideration and prolonged due diligence amid repeated revision of bidding document.
Further towards this development, the minister has also prepared and drafted Request for Proposals (RFP), containing financial bidding documents, to shortlisted candidates including four global firms- Alstom, Siemens, GE and Bombardier. These four firms have been shortlisted for the proposed electric locomotive factory at Madhepura, while two multinationals GE and EMD are in race to bag the diesel locomotive plant at Marhora. The estimated cost for setting up state of art facilities in these factories is about Rs 1,200 crore each and the financial bidding is expected to open on August 31.
According to envisaged plan, Madhepura plant will manufacture 800 electric locomotives of 12,000 horse power (HP) over 11 year, while Marhora plant will produce 4500 HP and 6,000 HP diesel locomotives using state-of-the-art technology. In the course of about 10 years after commissioning, the proposed Marhora plant is expected to manufacture about 1,000 diesel-electric locomotives, which is about 100 locomotives annually. Lastly, Railways will have 26 per cent equity in each of the plants at Madhepura and Marhora, while the global players will have 74% equity in the project.