Rail Wheel Plant, Bela is a Production Unit of Indian Railways w.e.f 1.8.2014. It is situated at Bela in Dariyapur Block of Saran district in Bihar (India). Foundation stone of this Plant was laid in 2008 by the then Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav. It is being built at an approx. cost of Rs. 1500 crores. It is spread over a land area of 295 acres. The project work is being looked after by Workshop Projects/Indian Railways, Patna. At present, the Project work is continuing and wheel discs are being produced on trial production. However production has started w.e.f 1.8.2014 though colony, track connectivity, implementation of ERP etc are still pending on account of Workshop Projects Organisation, Patna.
Construction
The Rail Wheel Plant’s construction started in July 2008. This plant is a step to revive industrialisation in Northern Bihar .Indian Railways made history by awarding this project as EPC contract to M/s Larsen & Toubro Limited. It was for the first time in history of Indian Railways that a highly sophisticated factory was set up without any foreign collaboration. It was possible because of inhouse capability of Railway engineers and Expertise of World renowned Indian company.
It was a challenge for Railways to start civil works in such a difficult site which is surrounded by river bodies from two sides. To add to the complication, the elevation of Plant was lower than the river bed. Also the soil was so loose, Railways made use of stone columning for increasing the load-bearing capacity of soil.
