Indian Railways gives green light to JSPL rails for high-speed corridors

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) on Tuesday informed the bourses that the Indian Railways has approved another grade of rails developed by the company for high-speed and high-axle load applications.

JSPL is the first and only Indian manufacturer to successfully develop 60E1 1175 heat-treated (HT) rails suitable for high-speed and high-axle load applications. Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), which works under the ambit of the Railway Board, has also approved the newly developed grade.

The company said that the Railways have embarked upon upgrading the track system to carry the heavy-axle load at a speed of up to 200 km/hour. Railways have projected a requirement of 1.8 lakh tonnes of 60E1 1175 heat-treated (HT) rails per annum.

Speaking on the announcement, V R Sharma, Managing Director at JSPL informed that previously, all speciality rails were being imported in the country and JSPL was committed towards manufacturing speciality rails for fulfilling requirements of railways and metro rail corporations. He further added that JSPL is also exporting rails to the adjoining countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the African continent. The company is also supplying speciality rail blooms for special rails to France for the European railways.

On Tuesday, the stock of Jindal Steel & Power closed at Rs 200.25 per share, down by 0.79 per cent or Rs 1.60 per share on BSE, against a 0.28 per cent gain in the benchmark index. The 52-week high is recorded at Rs 238.40 and the 52-week low is Rs 62.10 on BSE.