Indian state-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) will construct a new universal rail mill of 1.2 million mt per year capacity at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) to meet demand from Indian government-owned and -operated Indian Railways, a company official said on Thursday, February 18.
The new rail mill complex is estimated to cost around $5 million and construction works will be undertaken by a consortium of engineering companies led by Hankook Machine Tools Limited, South Korea, the official said. The new mill will be able to meet the increasing demand from Indian Railways for 130 meter-long continuous single piece rails.
BSP at present is the sole plant under SAIL which produces rails for Indian Railways but its output is restricted to lengths of 13 meters and 26 meters. Last November, BSP had secured an export order for 100,000 mt of 18 meter rails to Iran.