Shutter down for loss making PSU Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company

PUSHING forward its policy vis-à-vis loss making PSUs, NDA government has once again spelt out its stand clear. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal of Ministry of Railways to close the Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company Limited (BWEL) - a PSU under...
Ministry of Railways. As many as 626 employees of BWEL will be benefited from the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to be offered at 2007 pay scale. The Government will have to provide one time grant off 151.18 crore towards severance package and for clearing the current liabilities of the company.
The PSU is engaged in the manufacture and repair of wagons, and is having two manufacturing units, at Mokama and Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The third manufacturing unit was added to the company in the year 1983-84 at the Industrial Estate at Bela, Muzaffarpur for manufacture of LPG cylinders.
This measure will stop flow of financial support from public funds for carrying on the operations of sick/loss making BWEL resulting in savings for the Government. The implementation will be done as per the timelines prescribed in the guidelines issued by Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) on time bound closure of sick/loss making CPSEs.
In view of the continues poor physical and financial performance of the company for more than 10 years, in spite of financial assistance and other support provided by Ministry of Railways combined with low probability of its revival in future, Bharat Wagon and Engineering Co. Ltd. is being shut down.
BWEL was incorporated in 1978 as a PSU after taking over two sick private sector companies - Arthur Butler & Company, Muzaffarpur and Britannia Engineering Company, Mokama. The PSU was referred to BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) in December, 2000 and was declared sick in the year 2002. The administrative control of the PSU was transferred from Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) to the Ministry of Railways in August, 2008, as approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
In 1986, the PSU became a subsidiary of Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Ltd., Kolkata, under the Department of Heavy Industry. Both Muzaffarpur and Mokama Units are traditionally Wagon manufacturing factories. The layout, plant and machinery and locations are ideally suited for this product. "With a rich experience of steel fabrication of over half century, BWEL possesses almost all the desired infrastructure facilities for heavy steel fabrication. Availability of 316 MT Brake Press at Mokama Unit," the website of the PSU said.