Fulfilling the promise made by then Minister of Railways M. Mallikarjuna Kharge to the most-backward region, his successor Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the FIAT Rail Bogie Karkhana located at Badiyal and Kadechur villages of Yadgir district on August 18.
The foundation stone for the factory was laid in February 2014 and Tata Projects Ltd. completed the construction at a cost of ₹80.92 crore for Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. The Karnataka government had given 150 acres free of cost for the factory, which can now produce up to 600 LHB bogie frames annually.
The Karkhana, coming under Secunderabad-headquartered South Central Railway (SCR), is located 40 km from Raichur Railway Station on the way to Saidapur Railway Station.
The Karkhana was conceived to cater to the increasing demand for coaches following the Indian Railways going for fleet modernisation by inducting Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, which can be operated up to 160 kmph. While different rail coach factories can produce 2,800 LHB coaches a year, they can produce only 1,600 FIAT bogie sets. Two FIAT bogies form one LHB coach. Thus, two new bogie factories, one at Budge-Budge (West Bengal) and one at Yadgir were sanctioned.
Pre-engineered building
Constructed with pre-engineered building technology, the Karkhana’s sheds were fully fabricated on the factory premises and were shipped to the site in completely knocked down condition before assuming and erecting them.
It has most advanced methods of production with sophisticated machinery. The Karkhana has adopted several green measures including zero effluent discharge, water harvesting, and solar power.
The side bogie frames are set on jigs and fixtures and initial welding is done manually. The bogie frames are then transferred to Robotic Welding line for full welding. The welded frames are then subjected to shot blasting and painting before feeding to 5-Axis CNC machine centre for machining. The finished bogie frames are transported to production units at Integral Coach Factories, Perambur or Kapurtala as per demand.
