The Railways is planning to invest around US $ 140 million for modernisation of workshops and approximately US $ 23.5 million for procurement of machines over the next one year.

Railways’ Member Mechanical RK Rao on Thursday said the concept of ‘‘workshop modernisation’’ had undergone a sea change and the rapidly growing Indian economy was making huge demands on the infrastructure and logistics. ‘‘The sprawling rail network of the Railways has a definite edge in providing the most critical input to the economy, ie transportation. To retain this edge, the Indian Railways has a massive investment plan of Rs 2,50,000 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan, roughly Rs 50,000 crore a year," Rao said while inaugurating a two-day international seminar on "railway workshop modernisation and new technology in machine tools" organised by the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers, COFMOW chapter.

The Railways has more than 50 independent mechanical engineering workshops and production units.