[en] There are a variety of transport casks used in India for transportation of radioactive material ranging from small packages for radioactive sources to Type-B package for spent fuel transportation. Most of these casks are lead shielded type with Carbon steel on outer shell providing the required integrity. The first ever spent fuel shipping cask for PHWR fuel transportation by rail and road was designed and fabricated based on then available safety guide/standard 10 CFR-72 of USAEC and ORNL-TM-2410. There is a sufficient knowledge gained in last 30 years in design, fabrication and testing of casks specially to meet new challenges for safety and requirement of regulatory authorities. Subsequent designs are being carried out taking into account of these aspects. With the increasing need for transportation of spent fuel and other radioactive material and also to gain confidence of public, we have embarked upon a programme for testing of transport casks using scale models to validate the analytical methods and also setting up a test facility for drop tests, fire test and submergence tests for type A and B packages. This paper describes the design analysis, scale model testing and fabrication aspects of lead shielded casks for spent fuel and waste canisters. (author)