VISAKHAPATNAM: Following a feasibility study, the railways have shifted the Wagon Periodical Overhauling (POH) workshop to Vadlapudi from Kalahandi in Odisha. It is now ready with the general drawing arrangement and has been sent for the approval of the East Coast Railway Board.
The project was sanctioned in the 2015-16 Railway budget with Rs 214 crore. In the beginning the project construction department at the headquarters (Bhubaneswar) was looking after the project and later the Workshop Projects Organisation (WPO) in Patna was entrusted with the overhauling workshop project.
However, now the board handed it over to Railway Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
Speaking to the Express, EcoR senior DCM M Yelvender Yadav said, “The RVNL has already prepared and sent the drawings. Once the drawing is approved and the plannings are completed the project will gain pace. As it is a big project we are taking careful measures and also in an initial stage any assumptions cannot be made about its commencement and completion.”
Yelvender Yadav said that till date the servicing and attending of the wagons which go on 15 days schedule or a little nearer to such days are being done but post the workshop is established the complete overhauling of the trains which come after long intervals will be done.
“To attend to such wagons, we need separate apparatus and facilities which we had not earlier but will have after the establishment of the workshop. The wagons can be generated, repaired and maintained in this workshop,” he added.
The railways authorities have found that there was problem of water availability and other operational issues arised as well at Kalahandi.
Later, the ECoR submitted a feasibility report for the project where it concluded that due to operational ease, availability of Railway land, water supply and cost benefits, Visakhapatnam area is better suited for setting up of the wagon POH workshop.
The project can generate employment to around 2,000 people and the recruitments can be done from across the nation. For the project the railways have nearly 100 acres of its own at Vadlapudi falling under the Waltair division of the ECoR.