BSP TO PRODUCE 78 METRE RAILS
Bhilai Steel
Plant (BSP) of the Steel Authority of India Ltd.(SAIL) is gearing
up infrastructural facilities to make 78 metre rails for the Indian
Railways (IR). BSP launched production of 26 metre rails last
year. The plant was producing 13 metre rails for the past 40 years.
Longer versions would reduce the number of weld joints and ensure
more safety.
BSP now has
an annual capacity of 7,50,000 tonnes of rails. Since its inception
in 1960, it supplied around 9.6 million tonnes to the IR. The
IR, having the largest network in the world with 108706 track
kilometers and about 8000 trains, has an increasing demand for
longer version of rails for safety and speed. These rails are
also required to lay new lines, for gauge conversions, doubling
the single lines and to replace damaged tracks.
The recent installation
of Rs.61 crore RH Degassing Plant from Technometal and Rs.23 crore
German Ladel Furnace have improved the rails' quality by bringing
down the hydrogen content. Now this would conform to international
standard and IR's Standard specifications.
BSP, now, produces
rails of 2 types, R-52 and R-60, with minimum tensile strength
of 90 kg/mm2. During the last fiscal, the total despatch of prime
tested rails was 436,107 tonnes.
Bhilai rails
are exported to South Korea, Argentina, New Zealand, Sweden, Turkey
and Ghana. After a gap of more than two decades, the plant exported
7,256 tonnes of rails valued at Rs.15.41 crore to Bangladesh in
the last fiscal.
