Visakhapatnam: Forged rail wheel manufacturing unit to be up and running soon

VISAKHAPATNAM: The country’s largest high-speed forged wheel manufacturing unit will be up and running in the next few weeks. Owned by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited- Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (RINL-VSP), the Rs 1,683 crore unit will help reduce the dependence of railways on imports for

wheels

required for trains. Currently, the railways imports 60–70% of wheels a year.

RINL had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the railways in December 2012 to produce and supply wheels. In March this year, RINL completed the construction and trials of the plant. The unit has an installed capacity of one lakh wheels per annum and is built on an area of 50 acres at

Lalganj

,

Raebareli

in Uttar Pradesh.

As per its agreement with the railways, RINL will supply an assured 55,000 units in the first year, 70,000 next year and 80,000 every year after up to 2043 or beyond depending on renewal of agreements. Input material, such as continuous cast rounds (CCRs) of 330–480 mm diameter, is envisaged to be sourced from new caster in SMS-2 unit of VSP.

This set up is meant to produce the wheels. “Construction activities such as installation and testing of plant and machinery on site have been completed. The hot trial of the first forged wheel was also completed successfully. The unit is ready for commissioning and commercial operation, and is expected to commence over the next few weeks,” a senior RINL-VSP official said.