128-wheeled Vande Bharat coaches to be built at Hind Motor as plant gets new lease of life

The Supreme Court has upheld the West Bengal government’s decision to lease 40 acres of the defunct Hindustan Motors plant in Hooghly to Titagarh Rail Systems Limited for the construction of metro and Vande Bharat Express coaches. The land will be leased for 99 years under the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act. The decision came after Hindustan Motors challenged the acquisition in the Land Tribunal, Calcutta High Court, and the Supreme Court, where the state’s stand was upheld at all levels.

A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan stated that there was no reason to interfere with the High Court’s order. The state had acquired the land under Section 6(3) of the Act, which allows the government to take back land allotted for industrial purposes if left unused for an extended period. The land in question, part of the 395-acre Hind Motor plant that shut down in 2014, had been lying unused for nearly a decade.

The 40-acre plot will now be used to build a coach manufacturing unit by Titagarh Rail Systems Limited. The company will invest approximately ₹200 crore in the project. The land is located in Kotrong and Bhadreswar mouzas under Uttarpara in the Hooghly district. The unit will produce coaches for metro systems and for the Vande Bharat Express, including coaches equipped with 128 wheels. This marks a significant step in the expansion of coach manufacturing infrastructure under the Centre’s Make in India initiative.

Titagarh Rail Systems Limited recently secured an order worth approximately ₹11,200 crore for the supply of AC coaches for metro rail and EMU trains. To meet this demand, the company had proposed expanding its manufacturing capacity. The new unit at Hind Motor will supplement existing facilities to fulfil this requirement. The state cabinet had already approved the land lease earlier, and the Supreme Court's decision now clears the final legal hurdle for the project.

In 2022, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced plans to develop an industrial hub on nearly 700 acres of the Hindustan Motors site. The factory, once used for manufacturing the Ambassador car for over 50 years, had remained closed since 2014. With legal clearance secured, construction of the new factory for 128-wheeled coach production is expected to begin soon.