(a) Whether the Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company Ltd. (BWEL) was set up with an aim to manufacture railway wagons;
(b) If so, whether the company has not been able to achieve its targets;
(c) If so, the details and the reasons therefor;
(d) The losses suffered by the company during each of the last three
years; and
(e) The steps the Government proposes to make it viable and profit making company?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEAVY INDUSTRIES AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES ( SMT. KANTI SINGH)
(a) to (c): Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company Limited (BWEL) was
incorporated on 04.11.1978 as a Government Company vested with the assets
acquired by the Government of India from the two closed companies, namely
The Britannia Engineering Company (Mokameh unit) and The Arthur Butler
and Company (Muzaffarpure) Limited to manufacture Railway wagons.
The main reasons for the Company not being able to achieve its target for
last few years are as under:-
(i) Delayed and inadequate receipt of matching free supply items like Bogies,
Couplers, Wheel Sets, Steel & Bearings;
(ii) Shortage of working capital for purchase of bogies and couplers from
outside vendors;
(iii) Sudden fall in wagon prices due to adoption of open tender policy by
the Railways making the PSEs incompetitive due to high overheads
coupled with increase in input price; and
(iv) Lack of consistent supply order by major consumers; etc.
(d) The losses suffered by the Company during each of the
last three years are as under:-
(Rs. in crore) Year Net Loss 200304 24.05 2004-05 28.10 2005-06(Prov.) 24.39