Indian Railways: Will SAIL get mammoth 15.5 lakh tonne rail order?

Country's largest steel-making company, SAIL, under the steel ministry, is in talks with the Indian Railways for an order to supply about 15.5 lakh tonnes of rail in the next financial year, a company official said. SAIL as per an agreement supplies rails to Indian Railways. The largest transporter of India had placed an order with SAIL for supply of 13.5 lakh tonne rails in the current financial year. Till February 29, the company produced 11.65 lakh tonne rails, according to SAIL, as per a report by news agency PTI.

On asked about the Railways' order for 2020-21, the official said the company expects an order of 15.5 lakh tonne rails in the next financial year for which it is in talks with the Railways. A source said that generally, the Railways places its order by the last week of March or in the first week of April. Replying to an e-mail query sent to SAIL, the company said that "it has not received the order for rails for the financial year 2020-21 from the Indian Railways yet. However, SAIL is geared up to fulfil any order, which will be placed by the Indian Railways".

According to official data, in 2018-19, SAIL supplied 9.68 lakh tonnes of rails as against the demand of about 14 lakh tonnes. In the previous year, the public sector undertaking supplied 8.74 lakh tonnes as against the demand of 11.4 lakh tonnes. During 2016-17, SAIL supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes as against the Railways' requirement of 10.05 lakh tonnes. In the preceding financial year, the steel maker supplied 6.46 lakh tonnes against the order of 8.12 lakh tonne.

Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier said that as part of the modernisation and expansion plan of SAIL, a 1.2-MTPA (million tonnes per annum) universal rail mill has been installed at the Bhilai plant to enhance the manufacturing capabilities of rails to cope with the increasing demand of Railways.