Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) will be establishing India’s first Rail Wheelset manufacturing unit at its Raigarh facility in Chhattisgarh.

JSPL has partnered with GIFLO Steel - Hungary for this project. On Friday, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for technology partnership was signed between GIFLO Steel -Hungary and Jindal Steel in New Delhi.

The move to set up a rail wheelset manufacturing unit in the country is essential since India fulfils most of its requirement of about 60,000 wheels per annum via imports.

This development comes merely weeks after the Indian Railways awarded a tender for the supply of 39,000 wheels to a firm that will manufacture in China.

According to officials, this is in addition to another tender that was awarded to the same firm for 8,000 wheels meant for the Vande Bharat trains.

Public sector undertaking (PSU), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) too has a wheel manufacturing factory in Raebareli. This project has been developed with an annual capacity of manufacturing 100,000 wheels. But it has not been created due to operational problems.

The factory will have an initial capacity of 25,000 Wheelsets per year. Jindal Steel will also establish a Rail forging plant for Asymmetric Rails, which are used in Rail track switches, mainly for high-speed train tracks, the JSPL said.

JSPL said that it is the only producer of Head Hardened Rail grades 1080 HH & 1175 HT for a heavy axle load of over 25 Ton & high-speed application in the nation. The firm also creates Rails in grades R 260 and 880 for 60E1, ZU 1-60 & 60E1A1 profiles. It has also delivered R350 HT Grade Rails for its overseas clients.

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