JSPL joins hands with Hungarian firm to set up railwheel unit in Raigarh

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) will set up a rail wheelset manufacturing company in collaboration with Hungarian steel major, GIFLO Steel, at Raigarh, where the company’s head hardened speciality rail manufacturing plant is located. The wheels factory will have an initial capacity of 25,000 wheels sets per year.

JSPL is also installing rail forging unit for asymmetric rails, which are used in rail track switches and specifically for high speed train tracks. JSPL, however, did not reveal the investment it would make in the project or the time by which the wheels will roll out from the facility.

“We are committed to Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rail wheelset manufacturing plant will help Indian Railways to speed up the modernisation of its rail infrastructure by making available world-class rail wheels to realise the vision of Gati Shakti,” JSPL managing director V.R. Sharma said.

“JSPL has taken a big leap in rail infrastructure manufacturing. The company will install India’s first private rail wheelset manufacturing plant at Raigarh facility. JSPL has collaborated with GIFLO Steel – Hungary for this ambitious project,” says a company statement.

Infrastructure upgrade has been one of the key agendas of the railways ministry, which has bagged a major share of the national capital expenditure plan of ₹7.5 lakh crore. The FY23 allocation for railways at ₹1,37,300 crore is only next to the transport ministry.

Buoyed by the higher allocation, the railway ministry plans to spend mega sum on infra projects like new lines, gauge conversion and doubling. Allocation towards new lines, for example, has been enhanced to ₹26,323 crore for 2022-23 from ₹17,014.6 crore allocated for FY22. The allocation towards doubling, too, has gone up to ₹37,150.31 crore from ₹26,092 crore. Notably, the railways ministry is also in the process of procuring 30,000 wagons for which tenders have been floated.