Bharat Wagon & Engineering Co to close

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the Ministry of Railways’ proposal to close the loss-making Bharat Wagon & Engineering Co Ltd, which has manufacturing facilities at Mokama and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

The government is to provide a one-off grant of Rs1·5bn towards a severance package for the employees and to clear BWEL’s liabilities.

BWEL was incorporated in December 1978 to take over private sector companies Arthur Butler & Co and Britannia Engineering Co. It was referred to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction in December 2000, declared to be ‘sick’ in 2002 and transferred from Department of Heavy Industry to the Ministry of Railways in 2008.

Announcing the decision on August 23, the Ministry of Railways said it had decided to wind up the business ‘in view of the continued poor physical and financial performance of the company for more than 10 years’ and the ‘low probability of its revival’.