PALAKKAD: In what amounts to a formal ‘burial’ of one of Kerala’s biggest railway industrial dreams, the Union government has officially confirmed that the proposed rail coach factory at Kanjikode, announced nearly two decades ago, will not be implemented.
The confirmation came in Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s reply in the Rajya Sabha, on July 31, to a question from MP John Brittas.
While the reply stops short of explicitly using the word ‘cancelled’, it stated that the existing railway coach manufacturing units and those already planned are sufficient to meet Indian Railways’ rolling stock requirements in the near future. It further said the 228 acres of railway land acquired at Kanjikode would instead be utilised for “future development/operational needs of Indian Railways”.
The statement effectively closes the chapter on a project that had long been projected as Kerala’s biggest railway manufacturing venture and a major industrial investment capable of transforming Palakkad into a railway manufacturing hub.
The coach factory was first announced in the Railway Budget for 2008-09 and later approved under the Railway Budget 2012-13 in the joint venture/public-private partnership mode. For Kerala, which had waited 18 years for the ambitious proposal to materialise, the latest admission effectively brings the curtain down on a promise that never moved beyond the foundation stone.