RINL produces specialty steel including wire rod coils and rounds. (Representative)
New Delhi:
State-owned steelmaker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) aims to produce 55,000 wheels in the current financial year to meet the demand of the Indian Railways, its chairman and managing director Atul Bhatt said.
Visakhapatnam-based RINL has set up a forged wheel plant at Lalganj in Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 2,350 crore with a capacity to manufacture one lakh forged wheels per year.
“RINL supplied 2,465 loco wheels and 2,639 LHB wheels to Railways in FY23. Preliminary Acceptance Certificate (PAC) has been issued for the plant and 55,000 wheels in the current FY to meet the demand of Railways very soon will be produced till he told news agency PTI.
The steel maker began supplying wheels in December 2021 when the first batch of 51 loco wheels was flagged off to the Railways from its Rae Bareli unit in Uttar Pradesh.
Bhatt claimed that the targeted 50 per cent utilization of the plant would significantly reduce the dependence on imports and help the national transporter get better quality Made in India wheels as compared to imported wheels.
The CMD further said, “The plant is one of the most modern plants in the world and first of its kind in India with state-of-the-art technology and highest level of sophistication and automation. The forged wheels produced here can meet the high speed requirement. Trains that run at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.” The plant has the potential to double its annual capacity to 2 lakh wheels with the addition of certain facilities to meet the demand in the domestic as well as international markets, he added.
RINL under the Ministry of Steel produces specialty steel, which includes wire rods, coils, rounds, billets of various grades and dimensions. It is the country’s first shore-based integrated steel plant.
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