THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the coach manufacturing factory announced by the Union Government in Kanjikode and Cherthala remains a pipe dream for over a decade, the state has reasons to cheer as the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Indian Railways, the Railways’ current research arm, has given the state government undertaking Autocast Ltd, Cherthala, the approval to manufacture bogie required for the goods trains.
This is the first time a PSU has been selected for bogie manufacturing by the RDSO. Speaking to Express, S Shyamala, Managing Director, Autocast Ltd, said, “The RDSO officials visited and audited Autocast Ltd and approved it as ‘Class A Foundry’ with a production capacity of 4,800 tonne steel casting per annum.”
With this, Autocast is eligible to participate in the tenders for supplying bogies, coupler and buffer flanges for the Indian Railways.
“We are now concentrating on the manufacturing of casnub bogies and the company will then provide the prototype once the developmental order is given by the railways. This is a major step as the railways has so far been depending on the private players to meet the demand of wagons for the goods train,” she said.
Railways require around 2,000 casnub bogies per year and Autocast is looking to manufacture at least 10 per cent of the them in its facility at Cherthala in Alappuzha.
The state government had earlier sanctioned Rs 10 crore for equipping the facility for manufacturing the casnub bogies, completing the work on the steel casting line and machining shop in 2017. Equipped to manufacture 4,800 tonne steel casting annually, Autocast is now poised to be one of the the leading foundries in the country.
The loss making public sector undertaking is hopeful of adding at least Rs 4 crore to its annual turn over by taking up the bogie manufacturing. The PSU that registered a turnover of Rs 11 crore in 2017-18 has doubled its net business to around Rs 22 crore in the last fiscal by increasing its production two-fold to around 2,500 metric tonne.
Major leap for Autocast