Before the state elections take place, the government has decided to expedite a much delayed project to set up engineering units for the railway locomotives, which will bring in a ton of money of around Rs. 42,000 crore in Bihar. Two global majors are against each other currently in the race.

According to sources connected who are a part of the development, USA based GE are coming in to the picture for the diesel locomotives plant, which is going to be arranged at Marhowra. Alstom, French major is winning the rat race of the manufacturing unit set ups for electric engines. A senior executive of the Railway board stated that the plans have suffered a lot in the past for about 10 years but now, they are very sure of rewarding them on the last week of this month. He also added that the interest that the foreign companies are showing is very encouraging and will bring in more and more investment from outside India for the railways.

This project had been first talked about in the years 2006 by Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Railway Minister. But now BJP government has put a lot of light on this project as they are gearing up to battle with the Yadav & Co in the forthcoming Bihar elections. The projects are going to be a big employment initiator for Bihar.

The projects have been set under the private and public partnership model in which the Railways owe 26% and private developers control the remaining 76%. The proposals opened on Monday for the electric locomotive units for Rs. 20,000 crore, and it had 3 global engineering leaders, which are Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

The project has a fixed procurement of about 800 engine units by Indian Railways in the next upcoming ten years. The Rs. 22,000 crore bids for diesel locomotive units began on Tuesday.

It also involves a guaranteed offtake of about 1000 units over the upcoming decade. GE won from the 2^nd bidder, which was the Electro-motive diesel. Many related to this project have said that global majors are noticing the growth of Indian transport.

On 25^th August 2015, the employees of central railway went on a hunger strike for an entire day in Mumbai. This strike was against the Railway Board’s recent Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra Scheme. Around 50 employees of the different groups with the other staff like the commercial and running gave up food under the sign of CRMS (Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh). This strike took place at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The act was done to oppose The YTSK scheme, which enables agents to make ticket booking and they can apply additional fee charges on the fare.

The CRMS has referred to this strike as an unnecessary action and also said that it was exploiting passengers. The employees have made a demand to the board to change their decision. Currently, there is no update on how the board has reacted and if the employees are still on strike but as on the day, they were adamant on their decision.

The CRMS President, R P Bhatnagar had stated that this act is a defilement of the Contract Labour Act, 1970. He also added that due to the corruption in all the departments in the India Railways and because of association dealing with the administration and secretive players, the railway has to adopt such ways of outsourcing.

Under the YTSK scheme, the operator will add a fee of around Rs. 30 for the sleeper class and around Rs. 40 for the A/C class. The CRMS President also told that this is a small amounted fare hike and that the operators will only make about Rs. 50,000 every day. The members of CRMS observed the same fast in places like Nagpur, Pune, Bhusawal and Solapur divisions yesterday.

The general secretary of the CRMS, Praveen Bajpayee had stated that, the rail administration is not targeting passengers or the railway staff by any means. He also said that the money earned by the private players must have already gone in the railway’s coffer. He supported the strike act and said that there is no assurance that passengers won’t be overcharged.

“The problem will be given consideration if it is put in front of the correct authority at the right time,” said a senior CR official.

Since the rail sector is coming up with a lot of developments, there could be a chance of hikes in the prices.