India’s Tata Steel Limited has inked an agreement with Sukinda Railway Limited (SRL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of national transporter Indian Railways (IR), for the construction, operation and maintenance of an alternative rail link connecting the key steel-making raw material belt in the eastern state of Odisha with the consumption region, a regulatory filing said on Tuesday, December 21.
Tata Steel will invest an estimated $52 million in constructing the alternate rail link connecting the iron ore-rich region of Joda-Barbil to the steel and sponge iron manufacturing belt of Angul and the coal mining belt of Talcher to industries around Keonjhar.
The build-operate-maintenance (BOM) agreement between Tata Steel and SRL is for a period of 20 years and the proposed rail link will also improve logistics of connection of raw material transportation to Tata Steel’s mill located at Kalinganagar in Odisha.