Thaindian News

Kolkata, Feb 24 (IANS) The wagon-makers of West Bengal saw a “tremendous opportunity and huge potential” in Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s budget proposal of setting a wagon procurement target of 18,000 next year.
“There is a tremendous opportunity and huge potential for companies like ours. The stock market is a little sensitive to the news that five new coach factories would be set up, but so far as we are concerned, the future is very bright for us.

“My company expects 6,000-8,000 wagon orders from the railways in the short term,” wagon-makers Texmaco Ltd vice chairman Ramesh Maheshwari said.

“This year’s Railway Budget has been in continuance of the unprecedented growth seen in the past couple of years. It is my expectation that 2,000 new freight trains will keep the momentum going,” Maheshwari said.

“The budget was nice and it has provided a directional roadmap to railways for the next 10 years, more orders are always welcome for the industry,” Umesh Chowdhary, managing director of Titagarh Wagons, told IANS.

He said the railways decision to add 25,000 km of new lines in the next 10 years, as outlined in Vision 2020, would give an impetus to the industry as a whole.

“In the last 60 years, only 10,000 km were added whereas she (Banerjee) plans to add 25,000 km in 10 years, which is a very positive side,” he said.

On Banerjee exhorting the private sector to come up with large scale investment in various areas of railway services, Chowdhary said: “If the infrastructure has to be grown private investment is very important.”

He appreciated Banerjee’s concern for reducing time period for realisation of any proposal and her plans for setting up a special task force for it.