Indian Railways has signed two joint venture agreements with global transport majors General Electric and Alstom Transport for setting up two locomotive factories in Bihar with an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.
Under this deal, first venture the electric locomotive factory would be set up at Madhepura city and diesel locomotive would be set up at Marhowrah district of the state.
The electric locomotive factory would create 3,000 jobs when it would be commissioned in 2018. The rail ministry had opened financial bids for the two projects in September. The ministry said the locomotives would be used for heavy-haul operations in the Dedicated Freight Corridor project and would lead to development of ancillary manufacturing units in Bihar.
This is also the first big Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Indian railway sector after government had relaxed FDI norms to 100 per cent in the railway sector in 2014.