Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is gearing up to offer state-transporter, Indian Railways the option of import substitution through supplies of specialized forged steel wheels specially manufactured for Linke Hoffman Busche (LHB) coaches of the railways, a company official said on Tuesday, October 23.
He said that Indian Railways has decided to replace all existing passenger train coaches in fast trains with modern LHB coaches with greater safety standards and all railway owned Integrated Coach Factories (ICF) have been directed to stop manufacture of traditional coaches and focus entire capacities on LHB coaches.
At present, all specially designed forged steel wheel requirements of ICF were being met through imports from China, and SAIL has assured Indian Railways of meeting its entire demand for LHB coach wheels from SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) which has an existing wheel manufacturing unit, the official said.
SAIL is the sole domestic manufacturer of forged wheels used in railway locomotives and passenger coaches and top management of the company already visited DSP to ensure that the existing wheel manufacturing unit is geared up to deliver wheels specifically for LHB coaches and is confident of meeting the entire requirement of the government transporter, the official added.