Centre’s Decision to Scrap Kanjikode Coach Factory Project Cost Keralam Major Investments and Jobs: John Brittas

New Delhi: The Centre’s decision to abandon the Kanjikode Railway Coach Factory project, which was expected to boost Keralam’s industrial development, has deprived the state of major industrial investments and thousands of employment opportunities, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas said.

In a Facebook post, Brittas said the scale of the Centre’s “betrayal” became clear in the reply given by the Union Railway Minister to a question he raised in the Rajya Sabha on July 31.

The Kanjikode Railway Coach Factory, a long-standing dream of Keralam, has now been completely abandoned by the Centre, Brittas said. The project was announced in the 2008–09 Railway Budget and was expected to have an annual production capacity of 600 coaches, with an investment of more than ₹1,215 crore.

The Keralam government had acquired and handed over the required land for the project within the stipulated time. The foundation stone was laid with much fanfare in February 2012. However, 18 years after the project was announced, the Centre has scrapped it, citing the availability of sufficient coach factories.

“The claim that the existing manufacturing units are adequate is merely a smokescreen,” Brittas said, alleging that the Centre had deliberately sidelined the Kanjikode project despite announcing it and laying its foundation stone years ago.

He also criticised the Centre’s vague response that the land would instead be used for the Railways’ “future development requirements.”

“After waiting for 18 years, the people of Keralam have received not a manufacturing unit but merely a series of promises,” Brittas said.

Even if the Railways had concluded that additional coach manufacturing capacity was not required, the Centre had an obligation to provide Keralam with another railway manufacturing or industrial project of similar scale, he added.

Hundreds of acres acquired for a major industrial project have remained unused for decades. As a result of what Brittas described as the Centre’s discriminatory approach, Keralam has lost major industrial investments and thousands of employment opportunities that the project could have generated.