Senior Railway Board officials said the Railway Wagon Factory in Bangalore has made a major headway in this regard using about 1.2 lakh ton of scrap metals for rolling out wheels. "Scrap will also be used at the Chhapra Wheel Plant," they said.
The breakthrough came after the Bangalore plant reviewed the scrap, which mostly comprise worn out rail tracks, and made improvements in their metallurgy. The Railways also stand to save revenue with the in-house utilisation of scrap, officials said.
In fact, in-house utilisation of scrap was first recommended by a high-level committee, after which a study in re-utilising the scrap was taken up.
Interestingly, the breakthrough in utilising scrap comes at a time when the Railways have achieved the highest ever sales earning by selling scrap in the last financial year.
The Railways earned Rs 3,005 crore (Rs 30.05 billion) by selling scrap, which is 9.8 per cent higher than the sales of previous years, officials said.
During 2007-08, Railways had earned Rs 2,736 crore (Rs 27.36 billion) by selling scrap and in 2006-07, it earned Rs 1,832 crore (Rs 18.32 billion). The Railways have recently decided to sell them through the e-tending process to bring in transparency.
Improvising technology for reaching higher level of efficiency was taken up by Railways for cost curtailment. Recently, the suburban trains were also incorporated with regeneration technology for saving energy in electric tractions.
The technology reconverts heat generated from applying brakes into electric energy and feeds it back into the overhead wires. The technology has proved to be a boon for Railways.
