State-owned steel maker RINL will start commercial production of forged wheels at its Rae Bareli unit in Uttar Pradesh this month, a company official has said.

Visakhapatnam-based Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) has set up a plant in Rae Bareli at a cost of around Rs 1,680 crore, with a production capacity of one lakh pieces of forged wheels per annum.

"The commercial production (of forged wheels) will start by the end of this month. All trials required before commissioning the plant have been completed," the official told.

Earlier, the company's plan was to start commercial production by March-April 2020 following the hot trial of forged wheel lines at the plant, but it was disrupted due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

In 2018, a manufacturing trial of 430 mm steel rounds to be used in forged wheel production was conducted.

The wheels produced at the unit will be supplied to the Indian Railways.

RINL CMD P K rath had earlier said, "We are confident after commissioning of the unit, the entire demand of the railways (of wheels) will be met from the domestically manufactured wheels. This will help reduce dependence on imports making India 'Aatmanirbhar' in production of the forged wheel".

RINL, under the Ministry of Steel, produces special steel, including wire rod coils, rounds, billets of different grades and dimensions.

It is the first shore-based integrated steel plant in the country.