JSPL supplies 1.32 LT rails for eastern freight corridor's

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) Friday said the company has supplied 1.32 lakh tonnes of rails for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor's 194-km New Khurja to Bhadan of the section, a top company official said.

The said section of the 1,856-km Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) was inaugurated Thursday and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) conducted a trial run of a freight train Friday.

"Long Rails for the entire stretch of about 200 km that is being opened for the trial Friday have been manufactured at JSPL's rail mill at Raigarh. Over 1.32 lakh tonnes of rails, including 95,000 tonnes of 260 metre long rails have been supplied by JSPL," JSPL Steel Business CEO N A Ansari said.

The EDFC with a route length of 1,856 km consists of two distinct segments -- an electrified double-track segment of 1,409 km between Dankuni in West Bengal and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh and an electrified single-track segment of 447 km between Ludhiana-Khurja-Dadri in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

JSPL is also supplying rails to the Indian Railways.

In July, the company had bagged 20 per cent of Rs 2,500-crore global rail tender floated by the railways after anticipating that state-run SAIL would not be able to supply the 7,17,000 tonnes required for 2017-18 and 2018-19, as estimated at that time.

The order is to supply around 1 lakh tonnes of rails over a period of one year.

Ansari said, as, on October 31, 2018, the company has supplied over 35 per cent of the said order.

The company operates one million tonnes per annum (MTPA) rail mill at its 3.6 MTPA integrated steel plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

(With inputs from agencies.)