L&T's new unit bags maiden order of Rs1,000 crore from Indian Railways
08 Jul 2008
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) has been awarded a Rs1,047.60-crore order from the Indian Railways for setting up a cast steel wheel manufacturing plant at Saran (in Chhapra) district of Bihar. The plant when commissioned will have the capacity to manufacture 100,000 cast steel railroad wheels per annum.
The new plant will help the Indian Railways meet the huge shortage of wheels for rolling stocks due to rapid growth in the passenger and freight traffic and will reduce dependence on imports. With the dedicated freight corridor project expected to take off soon, the demand for wheels is also expected to go up considerably.
The scope of work for this turnkey project involves engineering, procurement and construction of the complete plant including civil works, electrical installation, design, supply erection and commissioning of machinery and plant. This is the first instance of an Indian company executing a project of such complexity without any foreign collaboration.
The only other such plant was set up in Bangalore by Indian Railways in early '80s with American collaboration. The project is to be completed within a tight schedule of two years.
As a part of its new initiatives, L&T launched a dedicated railway business unit last year to target the emerging opportunities in rail sector such as dedicated freight corridor, railway station modernisation, merry go round systems for power plants, ports, steel plants, rail-based urban mass transportation systems like monorails, metros and light rail transport systems.
L&T said design and project engineering capability have been developed in its railway business unit to address various rail sector projects in an integrated and comprehensive manner and to provide one stop shop for all types of railway related requirements.
L&T is also looking at participating in various upcoming PPP projects in rail sector such as rolling stock manufacturing, station redevelopment and urban mass transit systems, among others.