Indian Railways to begin corporatisation of production units

Indian Railways will kickstart the process of the corporatisation of its production units beginning with Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Rae Bareli.

The top officials of Indian Railways, Finance Ministry, NITI Aayog are expected to hold a meeting to prepare contours of the corporatisation of the MCF soon.

After the meeting, the railways will move a proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval, said an official in the Indian Railways said.

Though earlier the railways had a plan to corporatise all of its eights productions unit and make it single unit Indian Railways Rolling Stock Company, now it decided to begin with MCF. In phased manner other units will be corporatised, said an official.

The Modern Coach Factory at Rae Bareli, which produces about 2,000 LHB coaches a year, would become an independent organisation once the corporatisation process completes.

The RITES had suggested giving VRS for some employees and redeploying its staff to improve manpower efficiency. The main aim of corporatising the productions units is to make them more competative and market-driven, said an official.

Once corporatisation of production units completes, they will be autonomous body and will be able to take independent decision and upgrade their technology without waiting for the approval of the Railway Ministry, said an official.

The Railways has seven production units—Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Integral Coach Factory, Diesel Locomotive Works, Diesel Modernization Works, Wheel & Axle Plant, Rail Coach Factory and Modern Coach Factory.

Earlier, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said, "Railways has been working on modernising its infrastructure and by 2024 laying of additional tracks on acbusy route will also complete. This would help railways to meet the demand and run additional passenger trains. The Railways is expecting that these production units will increase their production capacity by rolling out modern coaches to meet the demand.

Though at present, railways has around 13,000 passenger trains on its network, additional 20,000 trains are required to meet the demand by 2024, Yadav had said.