SAIL likely to supply 10 lakh tonne steel for railway tracks in 2018-19; JSPL bags 1 lakh tonne rail order

New Delhi: Indian Railways would require 14 lakh tonne of steel during 2018-19, of which state-run SAIL expects to supply 10 lakh tonne, Parliament was informed on Monday. “SAIL expects to supply 10 lakh tonne of steel in 2018-19 and 12 lakh in 2019-20 to Indian Railways for doubling of rail lines, gauge conversion, new lines and track renewal works,” Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. [caption id=“attachment_3913347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The railway has indicated its demand of about 14 lakh tonne during 2018-19 and 17 lakh tonne in 2019-20, he informed the Lower House. In India, only two steel companies manufacture rails. Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) manufactures 260-metre-long rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant, and Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) makes 121-metre-long track rails at its Raigarh unit and can weld these rails up to 480 metre. SAIL was the only supplier of rails to the Railways until JSPL bagged an order in July 2018 to supply 1 lakh tonne rails to the national transporter. Indian Railways is looking at 4,000 km of track renewal in each financial year 2018-19 and 2019-20. It had invited the global tender for procuring around 4.87 lakh tonne of rails after anticipating that SAIL would not be able to supply the required amount of rails.