Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) is keen to participate in a tender floated by the Indian Railways for procuring rails, a senior company official said today.
The Ministry of Railways has recently floated a global tender to procure 7 lakh tonnes of rails worth Rs 3,500 crore. This is the first time that the railways has come up with such a tender.
Terming it a "not-to-miss opportunity", JSPL's corporate strategy head Kapil Mantri told PTI, "We are already supplying rails to railways of other countries and if we are able to grab it (tender) this will be the first opportunity for us (in the country)."
In India, JSPL is the only company manufacturing rails besides public sector Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), he said.
Mantri further said that JSPL is, however, supplying rails for metro projects in India as well as abroad.
At present, SAIL is the only company supplying rails to the country's largest transport network railways. SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) is country's sole producer and supplier of rails to Indian Railways including 260-metre long rails.
Railways' annual demand for rails is expected to be around 14-15 lakh tonnes for the next 3-4 years, according to Indian Railways' statement.
Indian Railways demand for rails in FY2017-18 is 14.6 lakh tonnes.
The MoU with SAIL stands, the tender is to procure quantities that SAIL can't supply, the statement said.
From the widest flat products to a whole range of long products, JSPL today has a product portfolio that caters to markets across the steel value chain.
The company produces the world's longest (121-metre) rails and it is the first in the country to manufacture large-size parallel flange beams.
Last week, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh had pulled up SAIL for slow progress in raising output.
"SAIL must ramp up production from New Rail Mill in Bhilai without wasting any more time...," he had said.
In order to meet the rising demand of the railways, the minister said the PSU should chalk out a time-bound action plan.
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