Rail wheels move from Bihar to ICF; a unique place after Bengaluru, wheel production being carried out 24x7

PATNA: After a 60-kilometre journey from Patna, we can see the production of moving parts of the Indian Railways. Yes, the Rail Wheel Plant (RWP) is situated at Bela in Saran district. An initiative of former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, the plant has been producing around 60,000 railway bogie wheels per year.

“During the last fiscal year, the RWP produced 60,000 wheels. Of these, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai alone received 18,000 wheels,” Sanjeev Kumar Roy, Principal Chief Materials Manager, said.

After production, the plant sends wheels to Southern Railway. It also receives raw materials such as steel and aluminium from various parts of Tamil Nadu.

“The plant needs raw materials for wheel casting. We have been receiving raw materials not only from the Indian Railways itself, but also from places such as Salem and Thoothukudi,” Roy said.

The Rail Wheel Plant produced 60,699 wheels in the 2025-26 financial year. “For the current fiscal year, we have fixed a target of 72,000 wheels. Of this target, we produced 18,261 wheels in the first quarter,” Aman Raj, Chief Mechanical Engineer, said.

The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai needs more wheels from RWP, Bela, owing to the increased production of Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and Broad Gauge Carriage (BGC) trains.

“ICF is concentrating on producing more bogies under the BGC and EMU categories because Southern Railway needs more passenger trains to cater to the additional rush during festival times. Keeping this in mind, ICF has given more production orders to RWP through the Railway Board every year,” Aman Raj said.

During the last fiscal year, RWP produced 4,652 wheels for Southern Railway, while it produced 1,867 wheels during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Along with this, ICF alone received 3,034 wheels during the last fiscal year and 1,901 wheels during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Considering the production of EMU and MEMU trains, RWP produced 815 wheels for Southern Railway under this category during the last fiscal year. RWP has supplied 311 wheels under this category during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

“We are looking for more job orders from various zones of the Indian Railways because we have fixed a target of producing one lakh wheels per year. We are working to achieve this goal if the Railway Board gives us more orders,” Aman Raj said.