Indian state-run steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited’s Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) has indefinitely deferred commercial production of ‘head hardened (HH)’ steel rails owing to the second wave of the pandemic, company sources said on Monday, June 21.
The sources said that cold commissioning of the HHD rail mill had been completed already and that a hot trial run had been scheduled for March this year but the second wave of the pandemic emerged, forcing foreign technical experts assisting in the project to depart the country, in turn forcing BSP to defer commercial production from the mill.
The sources said that commercial production hence stands deferred indefinitely and will be taken up as soon as the pandemic situation eases and foreign travel restrictions are lifted, enabling experts from abroad to return to Bhilai steel mill which is located in Chhattisgarh state.
SAIL had been targeting production of HH rails from BSP’s Universal Rail Mill (URM) in the fiscal year 2020-21, aiming to boost domestic import substitution of these grades of rails which have 50 percent higher load-bearing capabilities than normal rails.
SAIL is only second producer of HH grade steel rails in the country, the other being Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL).