Railways may renegotiate DFC loan condition with Japan

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Railways is contemplating torenegotiate loan condition with Japan for procuring high horsepower electric locomotives for the Western Dedicated FreightCorridor (DFC) as the procurement award is stuck over thepricing front. Railways’ ambitious plan to acquire 9000 high horse-power(HP) locomotives from Japan for hauling double stackcontainers on the Western DFC has come to a dead end with nofurther progress for more than last seven months. Railways has found the price of Rs 50 crore perlocomotive quoted by Kawasaki-led Japanese consortium too highand sought its reduction by almost half. While the Japanese consortium has not reduced the priceas desired by Railways, there was no further movement sinceJanuary, said a senior Railway Ministry official. "Since we will be getting the 12,000 HP locomotive at Rs25 crore from our upcoming Madhepura plant, the price offeredby the Japanese consortium is not acceptable," the officialsaid. Western DFC is entirely funded by JICA loan and as perthe loan condition Railways has to procure locomotives fromJapan. As a way forward, Railways is contemplating torenegotiate the loan condition so that it can go forinternational bidding. Railways is expected to procure 200 high powerlocomotives from Japan. The loco contract is estimated to beabout Rs 4500 crore and the first batch of locomotives isexpected to arrive two years after awarding of the contract. The Japanese consortium comprising five companiesincluding Kawasaki, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric andMitsubishi Corporate had submitted their bids in October lastyear for procurement of the 9000 HP locomotives for WDFC. As per the agreement, 40 modern locomotives with 9000 HPand IGBT technology will be imported from Japan, 60 will beassembled at the Railways’ Dankuni facility and the rest 100will be manufactured at Dankuni. The high-power locomotives will be used to hauldouble-stack containers on WDFC. WDFC will cover around 1,534 kms from Dadri to Mumbai,passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat andMaharashtra. PTI ARU RCJ ZMNRCJ