NEW DELHI:Indian Railways will get almost its entire requirement of speciality grade rails for the proposed high speed corridors from the domestic market.
Domestic steel maker JSPL has successfully developed 60E1 1175 Heat Treated (HT) Rails suitable for High speed and High Axle Load applications under its Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
The new rails, which has already got approval for use from the Railways, will reduce country's dependance on imports as almost entire requirement of speciality steel based products were earlier getting sourced from abroad.
Indian Railways have projected a requirement of 1.8 Lakh MT per annum of this high-grade 60E1 1175 Heat Treated (HT) Rails. This will be used upgrading the Indian Railway Track system to carry 25MT axle load and up to 200 km/hr speed.
Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) has approved the newly developed a60E1 1175 Heat Treated (HT) Rails of Jindal steel and power limited (JSPL).
60E1 1175 Heat Treated (HT) Rails is a superior grade to 1080 HH and will be used by Indian Railways for heavier loads and high-speed application. Based on inspection and testing conducted by RDSO team, Railway Board/RDSO had earlier accorded approval for JSPL manufactured 60E1 1080 HH Rails.
These Rails are primarily used by the Metro Rail Corporations, High-Speed Corridors and Bullet Trains. These Rails are equivalent to European R350HT grade with regards to Rail profile and chemistry but follow more stringent Quality tests.
JSPL's Gr. 880 Rails has also been approved by Railway Board/RDSO as a "Regular Supplier" to Indian Railways. Apart from 880 Grade main track rails, JSPL has also started supplying 1080 grade Head Hardened rails to several metro Rails projects in India which includes Rail Vikas Nigam Limited for the construction of the Kolkata Metro Rail Project and Pune Metro.
"Before this development, all speciality rails were imported in the country, JSPL is committed for manufacturing of speciality rails to fulfil requirements of Indian railways and metro rail corporations hence making India Aatma Nirbhar in procuring rails locally for different applications. These rails will be used in the dedicated freight corridor, high axel load application including bullet trains, " V.R. Sharma, Managing Director of JSPL said in a statement.
JSPL is also exporting rails to adjoining countries like Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, the company is supplying rails to the African continent as well. JSPL is also supplying speciality rail blooms for special rails to France for European railways.