Indian railway equipment manufacturer Besco has won an order from Indian Railways (IR) for the supply of 250 G105-standard high-capacity wagons.

In addition, Besco’s foundry division, which produces freight car bogies and couplers, has opened a new wagon manufacturing facility at its 14-acre factory in Baruipur, West Bengal, India. About INR1.2bn ($21.6m) has already been invested in the facility, which will have an annual production capacity of 3,000 wagons.

The company said that the new plant features a robotic welding facility for wagon sub-assemblies and automatic paint booths to offer higher quality and improved productivity.

Besco is also planning to invest an additional INR2bn ($36m) in its new Baruipur plant to increase wagon production to around 5,000 units by 2015. Besco director Siddharth Tantia told Telegraph India that there is a demand for an estimated 30,000 wagons per year and, with the dedicated freight corridor coming up, a tremendous growth opportunity is expected.

“Baruipur was the first unit to follow the G105 standard of wagon manufacturing prescribed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation of the railway ministry,” Tantia said. Besco currently exports almost 15% of its railway equipment production to Brazil and China.

“We are exploring new opportunities in Russia for exporting freight car bogies and couplers,” Tantia added.

Source www.railway-technology.com, 11 June 2012