Kozhikode: The long-pending railway coach factory in Palakkad is likely to be delayed further as the railways has failed to find a competent private partner for the venture.
Southern Railway general manager Rakesh Misra told reporters here on Monday that the project, to be implemented under public-private-partnership model, has received only ‘lukewarm response’ from private companies to the request for qualification floated by the railways.
The railways floated the RFQ on September 9 and the last date for submitting the application was October 24. But no competent partner has applied.
The Rs 600-crore project has been pending for over five years as the V.S. Achuthanandan government had acquired 430 acres of land in 2009. Although the state government had expressed its willingness to hand over the land to the railways free of cost if it was implemented as public sector venture, the railways opted to purchase 239 acres and set up the project under PPP model.
According to Misra, the progress of the project will depend on finding a suitable partner. M.B. Rajesh, MP from Palakkad, has said that the state government was not taking any step to realise the coach factory.
