The consortium of Calcutta-based Ramkrishna Forgings and Titagarh Rail Systems will commence production of forged wheels in June at its Chennai plant, billed as the second-largest such facility in Asia.
“We are going for commercial production next month,” said Naresh Jalan, managing director of RKFL, which owns 51 per cent of the JV.
The consortium expects to produce about 45,000-50,000 forged wheels in FY27, with the entire production to be supplied to Indian Railways. It expects a topline of ₹500 crore from the unit. Production is expected to scale up to approximately 100,000 units in FY28, with the full capacity of 228,000 units to be reached by 2029. Apart from supplying to the Railways, the JV will cater to the private sector as well.
“Depending on the input cost, the JV is likely to have a topline of ₹2,500-2,800 crore at full capacity,” Jalan added.
The ₹2,000-crore project is funded through a mix of debt and equity. So far ₹480 crore of equity has been infused as of March 31. The project was executed in two phases — Phase I, costing ₹1,810 crore and Phase II, costing ₹370 crore.
While Ramkrishna Forgings manufactures and supplies closed-die forgings of carbon and alloy steel, micro-alloy steel, and stainless-steel forgings, Titagarh Rail manufactures metro coaches and wagons, among others.
The forged wheel unit in Chennai is a major diversification project for both firms, and will bring an additional revenue stream for them.
