Ramkrishna Forgings, in consortium with Titagarh Wagons has been declared the Lowest Bidder (L1) by the Ministry of Railways for manufacturing and supplying forged wheels under the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.
As recently announced by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, this tender aims to reduce the Indian Railway’s import dependence by inviting the industry to set up a facility to produce these wheels, primarily for semi-high speed trains (Vande Bharat) and high-speed trains (bullet train).
The bidder will be required to set up a wheel test centre at a railway site for prototype testing of newly designed wheels.
The consortium will set up a manufacturing facility in India for forged wheel production and will supply approximately 1.6-million-wheel discs for different rolling stocks of Indian Railways over 20 years at about 80,000 wheels per annum.
Naresh Jalan, Managing Director, Ramkrishna Forgings, said, “We are delighted to have been declared L1 in the bid for the manufacturing and supply of forged wheels for Indian Railways. Also, the partnership with Titagarh Wagons is a strategic move towards expanding our presence in the railway segment and we are confident that our joint efforts will enable us to deliver world-class products and services to the Indian Railways.”
Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Titagarh Wagons, added, “We look forward to working in consortium with Ramkrishna Forgings to leverage our synergies and increase our participation in “Atma Nirbhar' programme of the Government of India and contribute to the growth of the Indian Railways.”