SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant bags Sri Lankan rail orders

Saturday, 26 March 2011 00:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the flagship entity of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has bagged a fresh order of exporting rails to Sri Lanka.

The order of about 14,000 tonnes is for the UIC-60 grade of rails that BSP has been rolling since 1970s, company’s spokesperson said. Earlier, the company had received an order to supply 6,500 tonnes of rails to Sri Lanka. The spokesperson added that the Sri Lanka rail officials had earlier visited Bhilai for previous order. Having gained confidence after the company developed, rolled and supplied the desired new grade, the BSP got this fresh order, he added.

Rails in 45E1 section and R260 grade that are being exported to Sri Lanka, have been made as per Euronorm specification EN 13674-4.

Special roll pass designing was done for rolling of 45Kg/metre rail section, which is much smaller than the normal 52Kg/metre or 60Kg/metre sections being regularly rolled for Indian Railways. During testing, rails pertaining to these orders were checked for depth of decarburisation along the rail head through superficial hardness testing, as stipulated in the Euronorm specification.

The hydrogen content in Bhilai’s rails is less than 1.5 parts per million. BSP has so far produced over 20.34 million tonnes of rails since inception. The company rolls out rails in lengths of 13 metres, 26 metres, 130 metres and 260 metres. BSP has started exporting rail after a gap of nearly a decade. It had earlier exported rails to Iran, South Korea, Egypt, Sudan, Argentina, Turkey, Bangladesh, Ghana, New Zealand and Malaysia. (Business Standard, India)