Indian Railways floats tender for manufacturing 80,000 wheels

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also assured of safer railway journeys to Vande Bharat passengers through an indigenously developed solution capable of terminating 99.9 percent of airborne germs in coaches.

In a first, the country's largest transporter, Indian Railways, has floated a tender inviting the private sector to set up a state-of-the-art plant for manufacturing 80,000 wheels for semi-high-speed trains.

The move was prompted after supplies of wheels for its flagship semi-high-speed were stuck in conflict-torn Ukraine and had to be eventually airlifted to meet production deadlines.

The railways currently requires two lakh such wheels annually, with the state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) supplying one lakh wheels.

SAIL's Durgapur plant in West Bengal has been manufacturing wheels for the railways' new Linke Hofman Busch (LHB) coaches – so named after the German company that has developed them – since March 2019. The LHB coaches are being inducted to gradually replace conventional railway coaches manufactured by the Tamil Nadu-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) for improved safety and higher speeds.

Other than making Railways Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant), Vaishnaw has already smelled another opportunity in the move exports!

"We have decided that other than manufacturing for the country, we will also be exporting these wheels globally," Vaishnaw told media persons during a press briefing in New Delhi on Friday.

"This is a golden opportunity for us since we have the advantage of volumes. One, as we replace the existing coaches and, two, since we have to meet the target of [manufacturing] 400 new Vande Bharat trains given to us by prime minister Modi," he added.

The minister said the railways would primarily be looking at the European market for exporting wheels as the continent is currently facing supply-side challenges.

At a time when travellers have become conscious of the hygiene aspect, the minister promised that the new Vande Bharat coaches will offer a sanitised environment through an indigenously developed solution. "Embedded in the air-conditioning unit it can kill 99.9 per cent germs," he claimed.

Called a photo-catalytic ultraviolet air purification system, the solution is installed in the roof-mounted air conditioning and cleanses the air of most bacteria and viruses.