India’s national transporter Indian Railways (IR) has officially taken over the forged steel wheels manufacturing unit of Indian steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, government sources said on Wednesday, April 24.
The sources said that, under the terms of the transfer of the asset, IR would pay cash of about $108 million to RINL and also take over debt liabilities of $120 million from the books of RINL.
The forged steel wheel making unit was set up by RINL with an investment of $271 million to produce 80,000 wheels and IR will be making further investment in the unit following the takeover.
RINL received initial orders for around 2,000 wheels and these were delivered in 2022-23, but it was unable to operate the plant at full capacity owing to financial constraints and the lack of expertise in forging operations, the sources said.