PATNA: The ambitious railway project, Coach Maintenance Workshop at Harnaut in Nalanda district, which is being built in the home district of CM Nitish Kumar, is likely to be made functional by the end of December 2011. Out of seven major projects of the railways being carried out in Bihar, this workshop is likely to be the second major railway project to be completed this year after the Wheel Factory at Chhapra, which is likely to be commissioned in July this year.
The GPT Infrastructure Ltd has been assigned the task to complete the civil work of the project. It has already completed the first phase work of the project and handed over to the railways four to five sheds for installing machinery plant. The sheet metal shop , bogie store shop , wheel-axle shop and bogie repair shop have been completed in the first phase , ECR CPRO Dilip Kumar said.
According to the CPRO, the civil work at the site will be completed in about three to four months from now. Work on the construction of the administrative block building (IT section) of the workshop is going on in full swing. The railways intends to make IT section functional on the campus soon to facilitate smooth installation of its plants.
The rare machinery equipment based on foreign technology has already reached the site , he said. According to sources, the railways has floated global tender for machinery plant installation at the workshop. The railways has completed road-cum-drainage system, too. The railways is, however, keen to complete an important part of the workshop, carriage repair shop, on priority basis, sources said.
The workshop is being developed in about 113-acre land for both workshop ( 76 acre) and staff quarters (37 acre). As many as 18 sheds would be built at the workshop phase-wise. The special feature of the workshop is that it will have the double-stacked coach maintenance technology to carry out periodical overhauling ( POH ) of coaches . The cost of the project, which was initially Rs 98 crore , has been revised to Rs 224.51 crore.
The railways will now finalize staff quarters building tender soon, sources said. It may be recalled that former president A P J Abdul Kalam had laid the foundation stone for the workshop on June 30, 2003, during Nitish Kumar’s tenure as the railway minister. The ECR is one of the biggest zones, comprising five divisions — Danapur, Mughalsarai, Dhanbad, Sonepur and Samastipur. It has more than 3,000 passenger coach holding capacity (number of coaches ). These coaches are at present sent outside the state for periodical overhauling (POH ) on a regular basis to maintain full safety measures on tracks , sources said.