Chhattisgarh-based Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), owned by Indian steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited, will commence its first commercial shipment of 130 meter rails over the next two days, a BSP official said on Friday, January 13.
The official said that, while hot trials and commercial production from BSP’s new universal rail mill (URM) have taken place since November last year, commercial shipments from the mill will be carried out over the next two days as third-party inspection by government-owned technical consultancy firm RITES Limited has been completed for the maiden production volume.
BSP, the sole supplier of rails to the Indian government owned and operated Indian Railways, has invested $176 million in the construction of the URM which the official claimed was the world’s first facility equipped to produce “a single piece 130 meter rail”.
According to the BSP official, in the first phase the URM will have a capacity of 1.2 million mt per year and subsequently over the next few years the capacity will be ramped up to 7 million mt per year.