In a first, Bela plant dispatches 250 passenger train wheels

CHHAPRA: It was a proud moment for both the workers and officials of the rail wheel plant at Bela under Dariapur block of Saran district, when the first consignment of 250 wheels of passenger trains were dispatched to coach repairing plant at Harnaut in Nalanda district on Friday.
Built over 295 acres at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore, the plant is capable of producing one lakh BOXN (Broad Gauge Open Air break Wheels) type wheels (used in freight wagons) a year, but has manufactured just 20,000 wheels since it was declared ready for production in March 2012.Now the plant produces wheels for both goods and passenger trains.
Considering this achievement as an untiring effort of about 32 officers and 960 employees, chief PRO Ugrasen said “The honour of flagging off the consignment was given to the senior most employee Navneet Kumar, working in this plant as master craftsman.”
“Since 2012, this plant has produced over 20,000 wheels. The plant successfully passed the quality test for passenger train wheels manufactured here on May 24 this year. It got the approval of RDSO (research, development and standard organization),” said the CPRO.
It is interesting that this plant is still awaiting official inauguration.
Elaborating the differences in both passenger and goods train wheels, the CPRO said, “There are number of differences in both the wheels in weight, diameter, chemical constitution etc.” The wheels of good trains weight 484kg, is 1,000 mm in diameter and 0.55-0.70% of carbon, where as a passenger train wheel weighs 445kg with a diameter of 920 mm with 0.45-0.60% of carbon.