The Railways placed an order for 500 wagons with ailing PSU Braithwaite & Co on Friday, a day after the Railway Ministry took over control of the wagon maker from the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry.

“The Railway Board placed an order for 500 wagons with Braithwaite today to start with, and it will place an order of another 200 wagons with Burn Standard tomorrow,” said Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Centre yesterday approved transferring administrative control of two wagon maker PSUs, Burn Standard and Kolkata-based Braithwaite & Co, to the Railway Ministry from the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry.

Braithwaite had no orders for the last six months, Banerjee said, adding that the Railway Board placed the order within 24 hours of taking over the sick PSU in the interest of the workers.

Burn Standard now has 1,500 employees on its rolls while Braithwaite has around 500.

At present, Burn Standard has manufacturing units at Howrah and Burnpur where wagons are produced. Although its installed capacity is about 1,500 wagons per year, it manufactures only about 800-900 units annually.

Braithwaite, on the other hand, has two wagon manufacturing units in Kolkata as well as a steel foundry.

The Centre had given its nod for restructuring of engineering PSU Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam (BBUNL) to improve performance of units located in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.