Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railway laid the foundation stone for the project of wagon POH capacity augmentation at Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop

New Delhi ,  23.05.2025– Union Minister of Railways, Information and Broadcasting, Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw reached Patna on his visit to Bihar where he met  Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar today on 23.05.2025 and discussed on the issue of ongoing railway projects in Bihar. During his visit to Bihar, Hon’ble Railway Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw conducted window trailing inspection between Patna to Jamalpur and gave necessary instructions to the officials. Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh and Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar Shri Samrat Chaudhary and Shri Vijay Kumar Sinha were also present with him during his visit to Bihar.

After reaching Jamalpur, Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected Jamalpur station and inspected the redevelopment work at a cost of Rs 30 crore and gave necessary instructions to the officials.

In another bonanza for fresh impetus in the form of ₹78.96 crore towards development of Jamalpur Workshop, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways, Information and Broadcasting, Electronics and Information Technology laid the foundation stone for the project of Wagon POH capacity augmentation at Jamalpur Workshop. Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Shri Samrat Choudhary, Dy. Chief Minister of Bihar and Shri Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dy. Chief Minister of Bihar were also present on the occasion.

On arriving at the Jamalpur Workshop, Hon’ble Union Minister for Railways, Shri Vaishnaw along with the other ministers and dignitaries visited different shops like wagon manufacturing shop and crane shop. At Wagon Manufacturing Shop, the Minister inspected manufacturing of BOXN Wagons, BLCS wagons and Brake Van having provision of toilets, manufactured at Jamalpur Workshop. At the Crane Shop, Hon’ble Minister inspected newly manufactured 140 tonne crane, 8-wheeler tower car and Jamalpur Jack which are the icons of this Workshop. While at the Workshop, the Union Railway Minister got warm welcome by the staff of the Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop.

Afterward, the Union Railway Minister visited IRIMEE Jamalpur where he released a booklet titled “Centre of Excellence” containing detailed development scheme on different branches of engineering like Welding, Pneumatics, Hydraulics & Mechatronics. The book contains the action plans on these four subjects to develop the infrastructure, training facility at this prestigious training centre for engineers at IRIMEE, Jamalpur. This endeavor contains an investment plan of ₹350 crore for development of the whole area.

Hon’ble Minister during his inspection said – Under the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the development of Bihar reflects to the giant leap in budgetary allocation for Railways in Bihar of about ₹1000 crore a decade ago to the present-day budgetary allocation for railways to the tune of ₹10,000 crore. Moreover, there are many other in the anvil for the development of Bihar like redevelopment of 98 stations and other Railway projects worth ₹1,00,000 crore. The Railway Minister informed that, 1832 km of new track has been laid in Bihar and 34000 km of Railway track laid all over India in the last 10 years. Electrification has been completed over 50,000 km. Electrification of Railways has also reduce the dependence on oil imports.

Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying appreciated the Union Railway Minister for his micro-level thinking and for driving development through a holistic approach.

Shri Samrat Choudhary, Dy. Chief Minister of Bihar and Shri Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dy. Chief Minister of Bihar speaking on the occasion, expressed their thanks for the Railways contribution towards the development in Bihar.

With the laying of foundation stone for of the project for wagon POH Augmentation at Jamalpur Locomotive workshop, the wagon overhauling capacity per month will be increased progressively. This capacity enhancement project will be executed at a cost of about Rs 79 crore. This will lead to improvement in turnaround time, increase in availability of wagon & improvement in operation.

Shri Pranav Kumar, Hon’ble MLA, Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, Hon’ble MLA, Shri Rajiv Kumar Sinha, Hon’ble MLA, Shri Lal Mohan Gupta, MLC and General Manager of East Central Railway, Shri Chhatrasal Singh,  General Manager of Eastern Railway, Shri Milind Deouskar and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.