Telangana will soon be home to India’s second railway manufacturing unit at Kazipet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the unit on Saturday. South Central Railway (SCR) general manager Arun Kumar Jain said on Thursday the unit would manufacture 1,200 wagons in the first year. From the second year, this will be scaled up to 2,400 wagons.
While Braithwaite & Co, a Kolkata-based public-sector undertaking, is India’s first railway manufacturing unit, the one at Kazipet will be the first to be set up by the railways.
Jain said that initially, a wagon repair workshop with a capacity to overhaul 200 wagons every month was sanctioned at Kazipet. It was entrusted to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL). Later, it was decided to convert it into a wagon manufacturing unit, keeping in mind the increased demand for wagons and pressure from various quarters to have a manufacturing unit to promote local industry. “The Rs 521 manufacturing unit will produce various types of rolling stock,” Jain added.
“The unit will spur the ecosystem of new industrial development in the Hanumakonda region,” Jain said. Spanning 160 acres, the unit will have scope for the manufacturing capacity of both wagons and rolling stock to be scaled up further. “We always had a shortage of wagons, and this will certainly help achieve the target of scaling freight transportation to 3,000 million tonnes in the country.
The unit also stands at a strategic location with good rail connectivity and access to all directions which will enable efficient delivery of orders,” the SCR general manager added.
The unit is expected to be a green structure equipped with a solar power plant, sewage treatment plant, rainwater harvesting structure and natural daylighting. It will be equipped with the latest technology, including robotic painting of wagons, computerised machinery for precision cutting and modern material storage and handling units.
The project is expected to generate 1,200 jobs in the initial years. The construction of the unit will be undertaken by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and is expected to be completed by February 22, 2025
