Steel Authority of India (SAIL), a government-owned steel producer, is set to manufacture some quantity of special rails suitable for high-speed freight corridors and metro rail projects, reported The Press Trust of India citing a company official.
As per the official, SAIL established a new universal rail mill (URM) at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh to produce head-hardened rail.
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SAIL finance director Anil Kumar Tulsiani was quoted as saying: “We will be of course producing some quantity this year.”
The head hardened rail is currently under the testing phase.
Upon the completion of the trial, the company will finalise the production volume of these rails.
Rails manufactured using head hardening technology, which needs special heat processing, can withstand 50% more pressure compared to normal rails.
In 2016, SAIL commenced the commercial production of a 130m rail from its new universal rail mill at its Bhilai steel plant.
The automated flash butt welding machine in the mill is used to produce the new rail line by using a fully automated long rail handling facility.
This year in June, Indian Railways launched an innovation policy, dubbed StartUps for Railways, to utilise new technologies developed by local entrepreneurs for enhancing efficiency in operations.
Indian Railways will trial the prototype technologies developed by the start-ups, with plans to earmark more financing to scale up deployment if tests are successful.
