Kotla lays foundation stone for Coach Mid-Life Rehabilitation Workshop

Kurnool, Feb 23 : Minister of State for Railways Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy laid the foundation stone for construction of Coach Mid-Life Rehabilitation Workshop, to come up at Panchalingala and E.Thandrapadu (three Km. from Alampur Railway station) in Kurnool District on Sunday.

The foundation stone laying function for this workshop, the first of its kind in South India, was held at Kurnool City Railway Station. Addressing the large gathering at the function, Kotla said that the Coach Midlife Rehabilitation Workshop, to be established at a cost of Rs 110 Crore, will lead to a boost in the socio-economic progress of the region and will also herald development of industry in the area. The minister also highlighted the rail developmental activities being under taken on SCR in the region towards which sizeable allocations are earmarked.

MLA P Murali Krishna and MLC Sudhakar Babu also spoke on the occasion. Other dignitaries and senior railway officials also attended the function.

Additional General Manager Sunil Kumar Agarwal welcomed the gathering.

The workshop for mid-life rehabilitation was approved by Ministry of Railways in 2013-14 Railway Budget. The sanctioned cost of the project is Rs 110 crore. The Mid-Life Rehabilitation (MLR) on a coach is carried out when it is at its mid-life i.e 12 to 15 years of age. In mid-life rehabilitation, heavily corroded areas are attended, anticorrosive fiber-glass tissues re-laid, flooring renewed, shock absorbers are changed, side panels renewed, light fittings are renewed, rewiring is done, all alternator belts are changed etc.,

The underlying principle of MLR is to give ‘As new’ condition to coach. It is done only once in the life span of a coach.

The workshop will have state of the art computer numerical control (CNC) machines and heavy material handling equipments to undertake mid-life rehabilitation of 250 ICF design coaches per annum.

The land for workshop measures 144 acres with approach road to Bangalore- Hyderabad National Highway. The land is provided free of cost by Government of Andhra Pradesh. It has Rail connectivity also from Alampur Railway Station.

The cost of mid-life rehabilitation of each non-AC Coach will be Rs. 36 lakh whereas, for AC coaches it will be Rs. 45 lakhs. The employment potential of the workshop is 1000 persons directly and much more indirectly.  INN