Railways hails DSP for early delivery

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) West Bengal based-Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), a unit of the public sector Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), has won the appreciation of the Indian Railways for developing and starting supplies of special 'S'-shaped loco wheels six months in advance of planned despatch.

''The Railways required this item very urgently to keep its Electro Mechanical Diesel (EMD) fleet running. The Railways' Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) at Varanasi has acknowledged the painstaking efforts undertaken by the collective of DSP's Wheel and Axle Plant to satisfy their customer's requirements,'' a SAIL statement said.

The Railways have so far been importing this type of wheel from Japan and the Czech Republic.

In May 2006, the Railways had asked SAIL to manufacture 120 'S'-shaped wheels with 208 mm bore dia meter to suit EMD of 4,000 horsepower. As per plan, DSP was scheduled to start supplies for this order from March 2007. However, learning of the Railways' urgent need to prepone the deliveries, the SAIL management immediately initiated action, leading to supplies starting on September 13. All ordered wheels have been manufactured and despatches to DLW, Varanasi will be completed within this month itself.

The 'S'-shaped web plate heat resistant high axle load rolled wheel for broad-gauge locomotives developed by DSP's Wheel and Axle Plant is capable of withstanding higher brake heat loads and heavy axle loads.

The new design will permit an additional 3-5 months wheel-life for locos.

DSP manufactured 44 prototype S-shaped wheels and supplied to South Eastern Railway for trial fitment in locomotives in April 2004. The performance of wheels fitted in the locomotives was found to be satisfactory. Further, 14 wheels sent to RDSO for testing by brake dynamometer also tested OK.

UNI BKS CS BD1702