Telangana to have rail coach factory

Hyderabad: The state government is working towards setting up a railway coach factory on its own either in the public-private partnership mode or in the private sector.

The state was promised a coach factory at Kazipet in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 but there has been no progress on the matter.

The industries department is in touch with private railway coach manufacturers. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to announce the launch and location of the factory.

Industries minister K.T. Rama Rao said, “We have waited for more than three years for the Centre to fulfil the promise to set up the coach factory. The CM himself met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union railways minister several times during the last three years and requested them to speed up the project.”

He said he himself and TRS MPs had met the railway minister several times in this regard. “Except for assuring that the Centre would look into the issue positively, no concrete steps were  taken to launch the project,” he said.

He said that after the state government launched the TS-iPASS industrial policy, private manufacturers of railway coaches had evinced interest to set up a factory in the state. “They are ready to set up a factory either in PPP mode or in the private sector,” Mr Rama Rao said.

The minister said that the railway coach factory would provide direct and indirect employment to thousands of people besides revenue to the state exchequer through taxes.

“We cannot wait any longer for the Centre's railway coach factory. Three years have passed without any result. We want to set up a factory on our own,” he said. The project would be launched irrespective of the Centre's decision on the coach factory, Mr Rama Rao said.