Essay on “Transport Equipment Industry in India” (1251 Words)
Railways:
Indian railways is a symbol of growing level of technology in the country. It produces all the requirements of its rolling stock, i.e. Railway engines, wagons and coaches. Railway engines are of three types: steam, diesel and electric.
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The steam engines are now replaced by diesel and electric engines because these are fuel-efficient and pollution-free. Engines are manufactured at Chittranjan in West Bengal, Varanasi in Pradesh and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. Rails and sleeper bars are manufactured at iron and steel plants.
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Coaches:
Coaches are manufactured at Perambur, Bangalore, Kapurthala and Kolkata, while wagons are produced in private sectors and railway workshops. The Integral Coach factory at Perambur near Chennai started production of railway coaches with Swiss collaboration in 1955. It now produces almost all types of coaches including air conditioned coaches, electric and diesel rail cars and electrical multiple units.
The Bharat Movers at Bangalore has an installed capacity of 400 broad gauge coaches per annum. Ail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab was set up in March, 1988. It has an installed capacity of 1000 coaches per annum. It is manufacturing AC 3-tier coaches also.
Wagons:
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Wagon manufacturing industry is fully geared to meet the growing demands of the railways. Most of the wagons are produced in private sector. There are 13 units with an installed capacity of 30,625 wagons (in terms of 4 wheelers) in private sector and three railway workshops with an annual capacity of about 4,000 units. About 60 per cent wagons are produced in West Bengal and the rest come from Maharashtra, U.P., Punjab and Delhi.
Other Railway Equipment:
Rails and sleeper bars are manufactured in iron and steel works at Bhilai and Jamshedpur and wheels and axles at Durgapur, Jamshedpur and Rourkela. Coaches and wagons are manufactured both in public and private sectors.
Road Transport:
Road transport is far more wide-spread than the railways. At present, motor vehicles like trucks, passenger buses, cars, motor cycles, scooters, etc., are manufactured in large numbers. India is the second largest producer of three wheelers.
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Tractors and bicycles are also manufactured in large numbers. India currently produces about 15 million bicycles and 3.8 million scooters and motorcycles in a year. The industry is widely distributed around Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur and Bangalore.
Automobiles Industry:
Automobile industry did not exist in India in the real sense before Independence. Only assembly work was done from the imported parts. General Motors (India) Ltd. started assembling trucks and cars in 1928 in their factory at Mumbai. Ford Motor Co. (India) Ltd. started assembling of cars and trucks at Chennai in 1930 and at Mumbai in 1931.
The real development of the industry began with the establishment of the Premier Automobiles Ltd. at Kurla (Mumbai) in 1947 and the Hindustan Motors Ltd. at Uttarpara (Calcutta) in 1948. Automobile Industry in India has made considerable progress during the last three decades. Today, it is one of the most vibrant sectors of the economy.
No industrial license is now required for setting up any units for manufacture of automobile except in some special cases. At present 100% foreign direct investment is permissible under automatic route in this sector.
Mumbai, Chennai, Jamshedpur, Jabalpur and Calcutta are the chief centres producing automobiles. These centres produce almost all sorts of vehicles including trucks, buses, passenger cars, three wheelers and two wheelers.
Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. (TELCO) is the leading producer of medium and heavy commercial vehicles and accounts for over 70 per cent of such vehicles produced in India. Four plants, each at Hyderabad, Pithampur (M.P.), Arson near Rupnagar (Punjab) and Surajpura in Ghaziabad district of U.P. manufacture light commercial vehicles.
Shipbuilding:
Ship building capacity of unit is defined in terms of the number of ships built and their carrying charring capacity measured in terms of Dead Weight Tonnage Shipbuilding is a large industry which requires huge capital. At present there are five major shipbuilding centres, namely, Vishakapatnam, Kolkata, Kochi, Mumbai, and Marmagao. They all are in public sector.
There are 28 shipyards in the country, 19 of them in the private sector. Private sector shipyards look after the local needs. Large ships take years to complete once the work begins. The maximum size of ship that can be constructed at Kochi and Vishkapatnam are 100000 dead weight tonnage (DWT, i.e., weight of empty ship) and 5000 DWT, respectively. For repair of ships, there are 17 dry docks in the country.
In 2010-11 the total shipbuilding capacity was estimated at 1164.3 thousand DWT comprising of 259.6 thousand DWT in the public sector and 904.7 thousand DWT in the private sector amongst the public sector companies Cochin Shippard Ltd possessed the maximum ship building capacity (110 thousands DWT followed by Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. (70 thousand)(DWT).
Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., Vishakhapatnam was set up by M/s Scindia Steam Navigation Company in 1941 and the first ship was launched on 14th March 1948. It was taken over by Government on 21st Jan., 1952 and was named as Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. About 6 cargo liners, each of 15,000 dead weight tonnes (DWT) are built here every year. This shipyard has increased its capacity and is capable of producing vessels of 45,000 DWT.
Cochin Shipyard Ltd. at Kochi started its commercial production in 1976. It has capacity to build vessels upto 85,000 DWT and to repair vessels upto 1, 00,000 DWT.
The Garden Reach Workshops at Calcutta specialise in manufacturing coasters, harbour crafts, inland transport vessels like tugs, barges, dredgers, etc. Located on the east bank of the Hugli, it has 5 slipways and 2 dry docks. After expansion and modernisation, this workshop is now capable to manufacturing ships varying from 15,000 to 26,000 DWT.
The Mazgaon Dock at Mumbai builds dredgers, dock cranes, cruisers, frigates, etc. for the Indian Navy. It can also build ocean-going vessels upto 15,000 DWT. The dock also undertakes the repair of the ships.
In addition to the above mentioned main centres, there are 33 smaller shipyards manufacturing vessels of small size meant for domestic purposes. Goa Shipyard undertakes the manufacture of fibre glass boats, trawlers, dredgers and barges. The annual turnover of the ship building and ship repair industry is approximately Rs. 2,000 crore and it employs 31,000 persons.
Aircraft Industry:
India has not yet entered into civil aircraft industry. For defence requirement, however, it has developed aircraft industry at Bangalore, Koraput, Nashik, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Lucknow. Each place specialises in the manufacture of a certain type of aircraft. India manufactures helicopters also.
The first aircraft industry was set up at Bangalore in 1940 under the name of Hindustan Aircraft Ltd. It was a private company and was taken over by the government in 1942. This factory was merged into Aeronautics India Ltd. in 1964 to form Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Bangalore.
Different parts of aircrafts are manufactured at different places due to security reasons. The main divisions of the HAL are: (i) A three unit MIG complex comprising the Nasik division where MIG airframe is manufactured, (ii) the Koraput division where the engine for MIG aircraft is manufactured and (iii) the hydrated division where electronic equipment for the MIG is manufactured.
Transport aircrafts are manufactured at Kanpur. Recently a factory was set up at Lucknow for producing equipment for aircraft. Among the other major products, mention may be made of Jaguars, Maruti, Gnat Fighter Aircraft, Jet Trainer Aircraft, etc. and some helicopters. The first prototype of light combat aircraft (LCA) rolled out in November 1995.