Work on the proposed rail coach factory at Rae Bareli — which was stalled over three months ago when the Mayawati Government cancelled the land allotment just two days before the scheduled bhoomi pujan by Congress president Sonia Gandhi— began without any fanfare on Wednesday.

Railway sources said they started work immediately after the Ministry of Railways and the state Government submitted the signed and registered lease deed of the land before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court.

Sources in the Congress said that Sonia Gandhi is now tentatively scheduled to visit Rae Bareli on January 27 and 28. She might also visit the site of factory in Lalganj then. It is not known, however, if the railway authorities are planning a bhoomi pujan this time.

While the construction of a tubewell is in process, electrification, too, would start soon at the site , said a senior railway official. The construction work will start after the water and power supplies to the site are in place, the official added.

This is going to be the third rail coach factory in the country; the other two are in Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Kapurthala in Punjab.

The project is expected to cost around Rs 2,200 crore. The railways paid Rs 9 crore to the state Government for the 189 hectare of land for the factory.

The factory will have the capacity to manufacture 1,000 coaches annually.

Three months ago, the state Government had cancelled the land allotment on the ground that the farmers of the area were unhappy over land acquisition. Following the cancellation, the Railway Ministry appealed in the High Court. On Wednesday, an agreement signed by the two sides was submitted in the court.