NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): Public Sector Steel Manufacturer SAIL is planning to commence commercial production of Head Hardened (HH) rails in this fiscal according to its chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary. HH rails are special rails used in high-speed freight corridors and metro rail projects.
Such rails are manufactured using the head hardening technology to bear about 50 per cent higher pressure compared to normal rails. SAIL has set up facilities for the production of HH rails at the new Universal Rail Mill (URM) at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, and the cold trials for the same have already been completed, Mr Chaudhary said.
“Though the commissioning of the facility has got delayed on account of COVID-19 pandemic, the company is planning to commence commercial production of the Head Hardened Rails during the current financial year as per the requirement of Indian Railways,” he was stated saying.
He said the Railways is moving towards higher speed and axle load rails and recently it required R 260-grade rail for its use. SAIL-BSP successfully rolled and supplied the R 260-grade vanadium alloyed special grade prime rails to the national transporter. In July 2020, the company dispatched the first batch of special R 260-grade vanadium alloyed rails to meet the requirement of Indian Railways.
“SAIL has a long relationship with the Railways and it is one of the most trusted partners of the Railways. We have supplied railway tracks to Indian Railways which, if measured, can circumnavigate the earth more than twelve times”, he further added.
SAIL has set up a new 1.2 million tonne per annum universal rail mill (URM) at a cost of about Rs 1,200 crore, as part of its modernization programme for Bhilai Steel Plant, to produce different types of rails. The 130-meter rail rolled at URM is the world’s longest rail in a single piece.
