Indian Railways: Titagarh, Besco Among Eight Leading Players Keen To Join Race For Rs 4,000 Crore Modern, Open-Wagon Project

Titagarh, Texmaco and Jupitor are among eight major wagon manufacturers who have shown interest to participate in the Rs 4,000 crore high capacity new-age wagon project.

The Indian Railways has invited bids for procurement of 10,000 modern open wagons with advanced features, for which the first pre-bid conference was held at Rail Bhawan recently.

Besco, Oriental, Braithwaite, Jindal and Amstead Rail are other leading wagon manufacturers who had participated in the pre-bid meeting.

This is for the first time that the Railways is going for high capacity wagons, for which a new design has to be made.

While the axle load would be 25 ton, the capacity would be increased from the current 80 tons to 81.25 tons — for which the new type bogie and suspension system would be used.

According to the industry, it is expected to cost Rs 40 lakh per wagon for which the design has to be outsourced as these wagons are operational in Europe and the US and Australia.

The modern open wagons are expected to cater to the higher demand goods transportation in the rail sector.

The bids are slated to open by the end of February next year.

The first prototype would be ready by the end of 2024 and then field trials are expected to be conducted for it.