A consignment of 128 wheels for the Vande Bharat train stuck due to war-torn Ukraine, which will now be brought to India soon as talks with Ministry of Railways is underway, said Ministry of External Affairs.
India's import orders to a Ukrainian firm for thousands of wheelsets for Vande Bharat trains have been hit by the war, but 128 wheels have been taken to neighbouring Romania by road and these will be airlifted by the railways for trials next month, reported PTI earlier.
They also said that to meet its target of launching 75 semi-high speed trains on prominent routes across the country by the end of this year, India has now placed orders for wheels with the Czech Republic, Poland and the United States.
The PTI sources indicated that Ukraine, which is one of the world's largest suppliers of such wheels, has virtually stopped new production with most staffers joining the war effort against Russia.
With this, they said, the Railways' plan of launching dozens of new Vande Bharat train this year ran into troubles as the entire order given to a Ukraine-based firm -- 36,000 wheels at a cost of $16 million -- looked undeliverable.
The wheels were planned to be shipped from the Ukrainian Black Sea Port to Maharashtra's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which has not happened due to the war.
However, the sources told PTI that it has not delayed trials in India scheduled for next month.
"With the efforts of the Railway Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs, 128 wheels required for the trial of two trains were sent to Romania by road on trucks from the wheel factory in Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine," a source said.
V K Tripathi, Chairman and CEO of Railway Board, told PTI. "There is no delay in the manufacturing of Vande Bharat Trains. All the required items like wheels and axles will be delivered in time." The axles needed for the wheels have been manufactured at the Railway Wheel Factory in Bengaluru.
The sources also said that the move to place orders with other countries will substantially raise the cost of procurement "because the demand is high and supply-constrained".
"Also, Ukraine is the cheapest option," a source said.
Sudhanshu Mani, a former general manager of the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and the brain behind the Vande Bharat trains, told PTI that supplies hit by the Russia-Ukraine war will not be a severe setback for the Railways' efforts.
"We have a two-month window from when the trials of the two Vande Bharat trains begin and the procurement of the wheels. We should be able to get them for all the trains. It is not just in India, but the problem is across the world. Ukraine is one of the largest suppliers of wheels so there is bound to be a global shortage," a senior official told PTI.
In her 2022 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that 400 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next three years, which are expected to cost between ₹ 40,000 crore and ₹ 50,000 crore.
(With inputs from PTI)
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