India’s second railway manufacturing unit will be soon established at Kazipet in Telangana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the unit on July 8.
The unit would manufacture 1,200 wagons in the first year, announced South Central Railway (SCR) general manager Arun Kumar Jain on Thursday.
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 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.
The construction of the unit will be undertaken by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and is expected to be completed by February 22, 2025.