SAIL plans to manufacture rails for Metro and High Speed Rail corridors

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is planning to start manufacturing special quality rails for the metro projects and high-speed train corridors in the next two years. According to the SAIL officials, the authority could start manufacturing of special rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh as well as the IISCO Steel Plant at Burnpur situated in West Bengal. "We expect to commence head-hardened rail project in the next two years.

However, the project is now in the planning stage and the capacity, as well as project investments, have not been finalized as yet", said Anirban Dasgupta, CEO at SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant. At present, the special quality rails which are being manufactured by SAIL hold significance important to the Indian Railways network. As a special product, it has more strength than the normal rails and can be utilized for metro rail projects and high-speed train corridors.

Dasgupta said that the feasibility studies will be carried out at the Bhilai Steel Plant and Burnpur Steel Plant as only one facility’s set-up will not be enough for SAIL, given the existing demands of the projects. The rail business would also help with substituting imports. He further said that the authority is in the process of hiring a consultant in order to carry out the feasibility studies. As per the track modernization program, the Indian Railways will need at least one million tonnes of the head-hardened rails in the next four-five years. The new metro rail projects across the country alone will stimulate the demand for at least 500,000 tonnes of special quality rails in the next couple of years.

Talking about the present capacity of plants, he said that the capacity of the Bhilai Steel Plant has been increased, for producing two million tonnes of normal rails from 0.8 million tonnes per annum after the modernisation process. At the closing of the current financial year i.e 2019-20, the Bhilai steel plant facility is expected to produce 1.3 million tonnes.