Railways to import bogies from Amsted to speed up freight

New Delhi: For the first time in its history, Indian Railways will import 4,000 light-weight bogies from world’s leading wagon maker Amsted for Rs 400 crore to treble speed of freight movements, sources told Bloomberg TV India on Friday.

The imports of high-speed wagons assumes importance in the wake of the India’s ambitious plan to build dedicated freight corridors that can cut down on transport time and cost, reduce congestion along busy routes and help accelerate economic activity.

“Amsted will deliver the first tranche of 260 bogies to Railways within the next six months,” an official said. The plan is to import a total 4,000 bogies for Rs 400 crore.

In the first phase, the imported bogies will be used to carry iron ore and steel. “Only 2-3 iron ore mines will get to use the bogies in the first phase,” an official said.

The imported light weight bogies to increase speed significantly. Amsted wagons can transport goods at 110 km/hr, which is almost three times faster than the average 40 km/hr taken by Indian freight wagons.

Although Indian Railways has been importing parts from foreign manufacturers, this is the first time it will import the full bogies from world leader Amsted.

Amsted Rail is world’s largest freight car component manufacturer apart from being the industry leaders in wheels, bearings, side frames and bolsters, and rail anchors.



Indian Railways association with Amsted is not new. In 2012, the Railways imported 9,000 high-speed draft gears from the American company.



In case of locomotives, Indian Railways have imported the first set of WDM broad-gauge diesel mixed-traffic engines from the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1962. Since 1964, it has been manufactured in India by the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi. The new variant WDM-2B locos have a maximum speed of 120 km/hr.



The Indian Railways aims to link the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Kolkata). The 10,122-km route of the corridors carries more than half of the country’s freight.