The Hindu Business Line : Railways may need to import 18,000 wheels to meet demand

WITH increased supply of 25,000 wheels from Durgapur Steel Plant and Bangalore-based Rail Wheel Factory (RWF), Indian Railways may need to import about 18,000 wheels in the next six months to meet its projected wheel demand for this financial year.

As per the present demand projections for the 2005-06 fiscal, the Railways require about 1,20,000 wheels for its wagons, about 29,205 wheels for its locomotives and 69,534 for its coaches, informed Railway officials. This totals to about 2,18,739 wheels.

Meanwhile, on the supply side, the Railways expect to source about 75,000 wheels from Durgapur Steel Plant, and about 1,10,000 wheels from Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore.

This includes the incremental 15,000 wheels from RWF and about 10,000 from Durgapur Steel Plant.

"The Railways will source a total of over 1,80,000 wheels from the Durgapur Steel Plant and Rail Wheel Factory," said a Railway official.

This fiscal, Railways has already imported about 10,000 wheels and is in the process of importing another 10,000 wheels, said a senior official.

"Depending on the availability of wheels, the rest of the demand would be imported," said the official.

During 2004-05, there was a demand for 92,989 wagon wheels; 24,288 locomotive wheels and 58,279 coaching wheels.

The demand could be met to the extent of 83,236 wagon wheels; 22,883 locomotive wheels and 49,648 coaching wheels.

As for wagons, the Railways had projected its demand for 25,000 wheels for 2005-06, which it later revised downwards to 23,300.

The Ministry pegged its locomotive requirement for the year at 271, with 143 to be sourced from Varanasi-based Diesel Locomotive Works and 128 from Chittaranjan Locomotive Works.

As for coaches, Railways plans to acquire 2,768 coaches this fiscal. While 1,109 coaches would be sourced from Integral Coach Factory, 1,216 coaches would be sourced from Rail Coach Factory, 286 from Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and 157 from Jessop.

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