Railways, SAIL to spar over rails quality after study flags safety issues

According to the report, the existing track structure in India, having 880 mega pascal (MPa) tensile strength, is "not adequate" for 25-tonne axle load operations

A study has said the rails Steel Authority of India (SAIL) provides to the Indian Railways are of lower quality and not suitable to run 25-tonne axle load wagons, dealing a huge blow to an ambitious plan of the Railways to move 70 per cent of its freight traffic on higher axle load wagons by 2019-20.

The finding of the University of Illinois study, which was commissioned by the railways ministry, is likely to lead to a tussle between SAIL and its largest customer, the Railways, as sources indicate that the state-run steel major is unlikely to immediately shift to a