SAIL for Metro coach unit, WB govt suggests Singur

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "SAIL has given a letter to the state government expressing interest to set up a coach factory of the Metro Rail. I had a talk with Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi.

"I will be happy if Rail, SAIL and the state government jointly set up the coach factory at Singur on 600 acre. We are committed to return the remaining 400 acre to the unwilling farmers," she said.

She said that the Railways had agreed to the proposed Metro coach factory and would send a formal letter soon.

Stating that SAIL and Railways have a long-standing relationship, its chairman C S Verma said in a statement, "SAIL is in talks with Railways for setting up a Metro Rail coach manufacturing facility in any suitable site in West Bengal."

Verma said that to further strengthen relationship with the Railways, work has begun in new areas, several of them in West Bengal.

These was a wagon manufacturing unit at Kulti, wagon components manufacturing factory at Jellingham, Nandigram for manufacture of cast steel bogies and couplers.
SAIL has also requested Railways for allocation of rail coach factory project at Kanchrapara, Verma said.

"These joint initiatives will give SAIL an opportunity for downstream integration and logical extension of utilising the various grades of carbon and stainless steel being produced from its recently modernised Salem Steel Plant and its other steel plants," he said.

"SAIL already has a significant presence in the state with two integrated steel plants at Durgapur and Burnpur and an alloy steel plant at Durgapur. Modernisation and expansion of these units at a capital investment of about Rs. 20,000 crore were already underway," Verma added.