Patna, June 15: General Electric (GE) has assured Union minister Rajeev Pratap Rudy that production of diesel locomotives would begin by middle of next year.

The assurance came at a meeting between Rudy and GE officials in New Delhi on Thursday. To discuss the progress of the project, John G. Rice, vice-chairman of GE, met Rudy in New Delhi on Thursday. He thanked Rudy for his consistent support on the project. Banmali Agarwala, president and CEO, GE South Asia, and Sharmila Barathan, senior vice-president, corporate affairs & policy, GE South Asia, joined him in the meeting.

The GE officials said production of the first locomotive would start from middle of next year from Saran. GE, in collaboration with Indian Railways, is building a diesel locomotive manufacturing plant in Marhaura, Saran district in Bihar. A new transmission line to Marhaura is being erected to provide electricity to this factory.

GE is also coming up with a state of the art maintenance shed for diesel locomotives on railway plot in Roza near Shahjahanpur. The project was launched as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" scheme in which GE agreed to invest close to $200 million to build a Greenfield manufacturing base in Marhaura (Bihar), which is set to boost employment as GE is planning to source workers and skilled technicians from the region itself. For this, GE even plans to set up state-of-the-art skilling centres with backing from the skill ministry, which too is headed by Rudy, in whose constituency the project is being set up.

The US-based GE got a contract of over Rs 14,000 crore for building locomotives for the Indian Railways in November 2015.

The locomotive factory had already been cleared and land acquired during the tenure of Lalu Prasad as railway minister but got delayed and could not take off. Lalu then represented Saran in Lok Sabha.

Under the contract, GE is to make 100 diesel locomotives per year and also maintain the locomotives for 13 years. The Modi government had showcased the project as the first FDI project.

During the meeting on Thursday, Rudy suggested that GE make use of the newly constructed state-of-the-art electrical sub-station, which is only 17 km from the facility, for assured high quality power supply to the factory in the long run. At present power is supplied from a grid approximately 100km away.

During the meeting, GE assured the minister of CSR funding in Saran district in drinking water supply, already being taken up under the minister's MPLAD funds. GE also responded positively to the request to engage apprentices under NAPS scheme.

Banmali Agarwala told the minister they are working on extending support for ancillary industries in that region. He told Rudy that GE Healthcare, an arm of GE, is working in line with the Skill India Mission to create a 100,000-strong skilled healthcare workforce in India by partnering with National Skill Development Corporation and has now set up skilling centres in 15 cities where they are training individuals to be lab technicians, X-Ray machine operators and eadiology equipment operators.