Indian national transporter Indian Railways (IR) has entered into a joint venture with Ramkrishna Forgings Limited (RFL) to construct a steel forged wheel manufacturing plant, for domestic sales and marking its maiden entry into exports, a government official said on Friday, March 15.
The forged wheel joint venture will invest an estimated INR 6.5 billion ($78.50 million) in the first phase to construct the plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
The plant would have a capacity of 250,000 units of forged steel wheels, of which 80,000 would be for domestic sales to IR and the balance of 170,00 units would be exported, for the first time from India.
Production has been scheduled to commence within 16-18 months.
According to the official, the plant would cater to manufacturing wheels for semi-high speed passenger trains being introduced by IR, which require specially forged wheels which will be met by the joint venture.
He said that for the past 70 years India has been an importer of steel forged wheels for manufacturing passenger and freight trains, and this would be the first time that a surplus will be sold in the international markets.
