The government is likely to launch a ‘reverse auction process’ to supply rails for railway projects.
After the launch of the process, a company that offers lower price can bag order of supplying rails to the Indian Railways.
Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) and state-owned SAIL are the only companies in India producing various grades of rails at their facilities at Raigarh and Bhilai, both located in Chhattisgarh.
In July 2018, JSPL announced bagging 20 per cent of the Rs 2,500-crore global tender by the Railways to supply long rails. Until then, according to a memorandum of understanding, the national transporter was procuring rails exclusively from government-owned SAIL.
Ever since its entry into the rail supply to railways, the company has till now supplied various grades of rails for a number of completed and ongoing projects.
While JSPL operates one million tonne per annum (MTPA) rail mill at its 3.6 MTPA integrated steel plant at Raigarh, SAIL has set up a new 1.2 MTPA universal rail mill at its plant in Bhilai, to produce different types of rails.