Jul. 3, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
Santanu Sanyal
Kolkata, July 3 Not everyone in the wagon industry is ecstatic over the Railway Minister’s proposal for procurement of a larger number of wagons in 2009-10.
If past experience is any indication, the actual procurement, it is pointed out, generally falls of the target and this happens every year.
Thus, in 2007-08, the target was 10,200 but the actual procurement was 9,101. Similarly, in 2008-09, the actual procurement was 11,000 against the targeted 20,000.
The wagon manufacturers hoped that the same will not be repeated this year also, more so because the requirement of wagon this year, it is felt, will be more than projected.
Freight throughput
The target for the current year has been fixed presumably on the basis of freight target of 882 million tonnes or an additional 49 mt over last year’s 833 mt.
The circles feel that actual freight throughput should exceed the targeted figure if the GDP grows as projected. In that case, the Railways’ wagon procurement figure will require upward revision. The freight target in the interim budget was fixed at 910 mt.
The proposed acquisition, it is further hoped, should be of the newly designed high capacity types approved by the Railways a few months ago.
It is, however, not clear as to how many of the new acquisitions will be the new type wagons.
Traffic diversion
There is another point: With the rise in petrol and oil prices, it is only natural that a large chunk of the goods traffic now handled by the road sector will get diverted to the rail, pushing up the demand for wagons.
Raw materials
The wagon manufacturers are not unduly worried over the supply of raw materials such as steel and wheels by the Railways.
“If the orders for wagons are placed on time, we’ll have no problems,” observed Mr R. Maheswari, President, Texmaco, the largest wagon manufacturer — accounting for 25 per cent of the total orders placed by the Railways every year.
Some of the wagon manufacturers express their reservation about the Railways plans to acquire the wagon units of Burn Standards and to set up a new coach factory in Kanchrapara (West Bengal).
At a time when the Union Government is at its wit’s end about how to contain the ballooning fiscal deficit, such investments by the Railways are uncalled for, they felt.
Private involvement
The Railways, it is pointed out, will do much better if some private sector wagon manufacturers are involved in the revival of the Burn Standards units.
