NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has decided to meet its requirement of forged wheels from domestic sources by reducing its dependency on other countries. So far, the railways have been importing various types of forged wheels to meet the requirement for use in locomotives and coaches since 1960 from the UK, Crez Republic, Brazil, Romani, Japan, China, Ukraine and Russia.
Facing delays in importing forged wheels with the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, the railway has started working to set up the manufacturing facility of the 'Forged Wheel Plant' with a capacity of 80,000 wheels in a year for the next 20 years.
Once the new plant is set up, the requirement of forged wheels for locomotive and coaching stocks will be met from its own domestic sources.
A senior official source added that efforts are being made to have this kind of facility as part of 'Make In India'.
"To meet the requirement of forged wheels, the railway had floated a tender seeking bids for setting up a manufacturing plant in the country with assured off-take of 80,000 wheels per year for the next 20 years," said a senior railway official, adding that tender was opened on January 24 this year.
In the tender, three bids including one from the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), have been received for the project. Railway officials said that the successful bidder will have to set up the manufacturing facility within 36 months of the award date and supply the wheels of various types at the rate of 80,000 per annum.
The railway in 2022-23, had imported 80,000 forged wheels worth Rs 520 crore from China and Russia with the remaining 40,000 being sourced from SAIL. " Currently, due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, all the import requirement of wheels is being met from China," said the official.
"The overall requirement of forged wheels is projected to increase up to two lakh by 2026 onwards due to induction of more and more high-speed trains, like Vande Bharat(400)," remarked the railway official..