Aatmanirbhar-Bharat?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal
NCRTC and Metro now need not be awarded to any MNCs since our PUs have capacity and capability
Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perambur in Chennai and Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Lalganj, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh might have been a far better option in this case for India, Make-In-India, much cheaper, better value and Vande Bharat is running flawlessly without spares doing India proud.
An retired Railway Board Member says, “We will now depend on a multinational to run our services for next 15 years after which we may or may not be Aatmanirbhar (#आत्मनिर्भर).”
It is sad that only multinationals participated in this tender and our आत्मनिर्भरता is not acknowledged, he said.
Development had been started for NCRTC after a meeting with CMD/NCRTC when GM/MCF, TOT for Aluminum, Standard gauge Fabrication/Testing etc was steered during the tenure of former Railway Board Member Rolling Stock (MRS), retired member told.
Sources external to the Rolling Stock directorate in Railway Board and perhaps favouring Multi-nationals (MNCs) derailed the Vande Bharat programme, (over 40 could have been in service today with a Mumbai Rajdhani in 12 hours).
As of now, in Rolling Stock Directorate there is no MRS from last about five months though Railway is all about Rolling Stock, No AM/PU, No AM/ME (due for over a year) and no PEDs except indefinite looking after arrangements at these top three higher levels.
This is not aimed to be a criticism on anybody but a sad reflection of the heights Railways had reached in last two years in Rolling Stock Design/Production and Development that had made multinationals jittery, nervous and wonderstruck but looks like they are now firmly back in the saddle.
Perhaps there should be a task force of Rolling Stock officers who successfully did a Perform/Reform/Transform with Skill/Scale and Speed, and successfully steered the success in last 2 years.
Zhou Zhou also has some contract given by ICF in February 2017 but that is still lingering and no rakes have been supplied. An expert opinion is that, the contract should immediately be cancelled.
RDSO and Kolkata Metro are trying to get the Dalian rake cleared by concessions as perhaps that rake is unfit as per original contract conditions. This contract should also immediately be cancelled.
Last year at least 15 metro rakes were expected to be inducted from ICF and MCF to replace the overages rakes and provide desperate relief.
China and other multinationals are active and now back in command though our Production Units (PUs) are more than equal to their challenge.
NCRTC and Metro now need not be awarded to any multinational company since our PUs have capacity and capability.
Make-in-India, Skill-India, Be-Local-Be-Vocal, आत्मनिर्भरता etc will all be benefitted apart from developing a billion dollar export potential.
#Zhou_Zhou has some contract given by @ICF in February 2017 but that is still lingering and no #rakes have been supplied till date
The #contract should immediately be cancelled@PMOIndia@RailMinIndia@NITIAayog@rashtrapatibhvn@cabsect_india@PiyushGoyal@PiyushGoyalOffc
— RAILWHISPERS (@Railwhispers) June 21, 2020
This is not only for आत्मनिर्भरता, Make in India including NCRTC/Metro but also realising an Export potential of over a billion USD!
Now Bombardier wants to monopolise mobility though we have our own huge capability as in following article-
Bombardier Transportation keen to solve mobility challenges of India: Sudhir Rao, MD, India
Reply of one of a mail by a retired Railway Board Member to PMO/PM has not come but he says firmly that “the Bombardier contract should be cancelled immediately and we do need a Task Force of those who made Vande Bharat and the success of MCF possible to avoid being at the mercy of MNCs for decades to come”.
#Published as received