A pair of bullet trains to be developed indigenously around 2000 km away from here have ignited a spark at abandoned CPSU in Durgapur.

There was a detailed survey by Mecon, another CPSU.

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It’s learnt that the Prime Minister’s Office has instructed the consortium partners of the closed CPSU here to accommodate the trade union representatives during their visit to the liquidator’s office at the Calcutta High Court for the purpose of reopening of the factory.

The Intuc and the Citu-affiliated trade unions of the closed CPSU, in their respective communications to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the top brass of Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) have urged for resumption of production at the closed MAMC (Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation).

BEML, a multi-technology concern under the ministry of defence recently has bagged a Rs 867 cr contract to build a pair of bullet trains from Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. The BEML holds 48 per cent stake of the MAMC that, after a JV agreement together with two other consortium partners – the Coal India Limited (CIL) and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) on 16 June, 2010, had procured the defunct factory here through an auction process aiming to reopen it.

Since then 14 years have passed, but the same MAMC couldn’t get revived. The factory was built with technology support by Russia-based PSU major in 1964.

Binoyendra Kishore Chakraborty, vice-president, Citu, in his communication to the CMD, BEML, on 6 November, stated, “Contrary to the dismal scenario some rays of hope has started generating due to the rosy picture that the BEML- the consortium leader of MAMC has emerged as the sole domestic manufacturer of bullet trains, which has infused a fresh blood in a run for reopening of our MAMC, too.”

On 22 August, 2024, the chief general manager, BEML, Abenezer S Khess, in his communication to Asim Chatterjee, the Intuc president at MAMC stated that Chatterjee’s petition for reopening of MAMC was already shared with two other consortium partners. Later, on 27 September, Chatterjee had sought PM Modi’s intervention. Chatterjee said: “Last week I’ve been told by the top officials that the BEML with other partners will accompany me to the liquidator’s office for the purpose soon.”