BENGALURU: Metro corporations across the country are looking at procuring wheels and axles from the Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) at Yelahanka rather than importing them. A high-level delegation from New Delhi along with top Metro officials of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) visited the factory to explore the possibility.
Union Urban and Housing Affairs Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, who is also the Chairman of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, accompanied by Ajay Seth, Managing Director of BMRCL, held extensive talks in this connection with top RWF officials on Friday.The RWF presently supplies wheels and axles for all coaches manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, which supplies the entire Indian Railways.
Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer at RWF, Sanjeev Kishore expressed confidence that the factory had the technical expertise to meet the requirements of Metro trains. “There needs to be some technical changes incorporated but the wheels and axles used are similar to those used in Electric Multiple Unit trains across the country. We are also putting in place a new Axle Forging Line which will help in increasing our capacity,” Kishore told TNIE.
The 24x7 factory had produced 1,31,000 wheels and 64,000 axles for the previous financial year. “We have now set our sights at boosting it to 1,71,000 wheels and 70,000 axles for April 2019-March 2020,” he added.
Mishra told TNIE that the Centre was not looking at procuring the wheels for any specific Metro Corporation. “We are looking at getting them in house for all Metro Corporations in the country,” he said. “Though the manufacturing price, whether we import it or manufacture it within the country is roughly the same, it will help further the ‘Make in India’ concept,” he said.
BMRCL Chief Public Relations Officer Y L Chavan said that Czechoslovakia-based Bonatrans Group Inc was supplying the rolling stock for Bengaluru Metro presently. “BMRCL would roughly require 2400 wheels and 1200 axles in the case of 50 six-car trains. However, the number of trains to be deployed for Phase-II is set to be much higher,” he said.
Phase-II is set to cover a distance of 72.1 km and work is on to meet the 2023 deadline.