Opening a new chapter in the industrial development of the State, Autokast Ltd., an ISO 9001-2015 certified ferrous foundry manufacturing unit in the public sector at S.N. Puram, Cherthala, is set to make Casnub bogies for Indian Railways.
The State has gone ahead to equip the Autokast with the requisite infrastructure as the proposal by the railways announced in the 2007-08 railway budget to set up a joint venture with the public sector undertaking to manufacture wagon and coaching components failed to take off. In 2009, a shareholders’ agreement was signed between the railways and Kerala government.
The Lucknow-based Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Union Ministry of Railways has accorded Class ‘A’ Foundry status to Autokast housed in Alappuzha to produce 4,800 metric tonne steel castings a year.
“We have received the order to this effect from the RDSO Director this week and the status of approved vendor,” official sources said. For the Autokast officials, it was three years hard work.
With this, Autokast can supply different bogies, coupler and buffer flange, and other units needed for the railways procured through RDSO by participating in tenders. Autokast is the first public sector undertaking in a State to get into the RDSO vendor directory.
A team of officials from RDSO office in Hyderabad had visited the unit from November 2018 to February 2019 to see the standard technical requirements and new machinery installed. The approval was given after the RDSO Director’s audit this month.
Already, the prototype of the Casnub bogies had been manufactured in Autokast and subjected to quality tests of the RDSO. The railways need 2,000 Casnub bogies annually. Autokast is gearing up to manufacture 10% of the bogies needed in the initial years and to step up the production in the subsequent years.
Each Casnub bogie costs ₹2 lakh and the public sector undertaking expected an increase in turnover of ₹4 crore. The present LDF government had provided ₹10 crore in 2017 to Autokast, that was declared sick in 1992, for creating the infrastructure for manufacturing Casnub bogies, steel casting line and machining shop.