Vadlapudi Wagon Repair Workshop: A remarkable feat for Indian Railways! The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, had commissioned Wagon Repair Workshop in Vadlapudi near Vishakapatnam yard on a super fast track. According to the Railway Ministry, the Wagon Repair Workshop can handle 200 wagons for repair in a month. The project has been set up at an area of 203 acres of railway land comprising three lines interchange yard in 23 acres with an electronic interlocked station building workshop at 123 acres of land, administrative block and residential colony in 57 acres of land.
According to the Railway Ministry, the workshop will significantly reduce the idle movement of wagons for repair. Also, the workshop layout has been designed for the uniflow movement of wagons to reduce the cycle time for repair. A 700 metre long main pre-engineered building shed has two base – wagon bay for repair wagon body and underframe, paint booth and drying oven and auxiliary for repair bogie, wheel set, etc. The workshop has been equipped with the latest state-of-the-art machinery implant, material handling systems, and various utilities.
Meanwhile, the national transporter is on a mission to RFID Tag (radio-frequency identification tag) all wagons by December 2022. According to Indian Railways, these RFID tags will be used for tracking all wagons, locos and coaches. At present, such data are maintained by Indian Railways manually, which leaves scope for errors. However, by utilizing RFID devices, it will be easier for the Indian Railways to know the exact position of all the wagons, coaches as well as locomotives. The national transporter had earlier also stated that with the introduction of RFID tags, the issue of shortage of locomotives, coaches, as well as wagons, is likely to be addressed in a more transparent and expeditious way.