A four-decade-old technical body, the Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshops (COFMOW), which specialises in procurement of machines for Railways, will be shut down from December 1, the Railway Ministry ordered on Tuesday.
The decision is in line with the policy to shed flab by shutting down government organisations in Railways that have outlived their utility, as per last year’s recommendations by Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council.
COFMOW was set up in 1979 to modernise various Railways production units and other workshops that were transitioning from mechanical machines to more advanced, computer-controlled machines. It picked up the expertise of procuring complex machines for Railways, lending to the process the institutional knowledge of prices and technical soundness, compatibility of modern machines.
Officials told The Indian Express that such was the specialisation of this organisation that other government bodies often sought COFMOW’s inputs and support for their various procurement.
Officers of the Indian Railway Mechanical Engineering stream were mostly posted there, with the office based in Delhi’s ITO area.
Sources in the government said that a whole, separate organisation is no longer required for the job of procurement alone, and the procurement that COFMOW does can be done by officers in various zonal railways, production units and workshops.
Emphasising that there is “no implication” on the procurement process, a source said, “COFMOW has officers from the Railways posted there in the course of normal transfer and posting. It is the same officers with senior grades who do technical procurement for zonal railways when they are posted there. So there is no question of loss of expertise to the procurement process. This is about rationalisation of resources.”
COFMOW was set up for modernisation of workshops, and all workshops are modernised today, an official said. The existing tenders of COFMOW will go to respective zonal railways; officers and staff will be posted in various railways; and the office space will be available for other suitable purposes, they said.
Sources said the next in line to be shut down is the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification — likely by the end of 2023, by which time almost the entire broad gauge network will stand electrified.
