South Central Railway (SCR) has stated that the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Warangal on July 8 will be for laying the foundation stone for the ₹521 crore ‘railway wagon manufacturing unit at Kazipet’, which will a capacity to produce 100 wagons each month in the first year and this could be scaled upto to 200 wagons a month from the second year.
An official spokesperson informed on Saturday that the originally conceptualised ‘wagon repair workshop’ at Kazipet at an estimated cost of ₹269 crore was to build a periodic overhaul (POH) unit for repairing about 200 wagons per month. But, this got upgraded following demand from ‘political leaders’ to promote local industry for supporting a manufacturing unit.
The reasoning was that a full fledged manufacturing unit would help in economic development of the region and also provide employment opportunities too in view of the enhanced requirement of new wagons by the Indian Railways.
The railways has decided to go for a change in the layout in view of the change in the manufacturing unit profile. The stripping shop and the sheet metal shops are to be built adjacent to each other for the making of the side walls and end walls using proper fixtures for the wagons.
There will be no change in the plan for the body shop, wheel shop, paint shop and the store ward. Additional machinery in the form of gang drilling machines, shearing machines, bench press, universal underframe welding manipulators, straightening machine, huck bolting machine etc., are to be procured.
The railway officials claimed that Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of Northeast Region and Secunderabad MP G. Kishan Reddy, has been at the forefront in actively pursuing the project with the Centre and the Ministry of Railways on the need for a complete wagon manufacturing unit.
The plant’s manufacturing capacity can be further scaled up by making more side wall and end walls as well as enhancing the capacity of wheel shop and paint shop, they added.
