JSPL starts supplying head hardened rails for Kolkata metro project

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Thursday said it has started supplying head hardened (HH) rail to Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) for the Kolkata Metro's Joka-Esplanade corridor.

HH rails are used in high-speed freight corridors and metro rail projects.

In a statement, JSPL said the company was selected by RVNL after a bidding process to supply 3,000 tonnes of HH rails for Kolkata metro rail tracks.

It added that JSPL has started the supply of 1080 HH rails to RVNL for the completion of Kolkata Metro's Joka-Esplanade corridor in West Bengal. So far, it has supplied 1,300 tonnes of 1080-grade HH rails to RVNL, and the remaining 1,700 tonne rail will be made available within a week, the company said.

The company's Managing Director V R Sharma said, "We thank RVNL, Indian Railways, IRCON, and Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO) for extending their cooperation and trust in JSPL's quality."

JSPL is the only player in India manufacturing HH rails. The company's rail mill at its Raigarh plant has a capacity to produce over 30,000 tonnes of such rails per month.

The firm further said that "earlier, metro rail corporations and western dedicated freight corridors used to import head hardened rails for construction of high-speed tracks from Japan and Europe".

Trains can run on these tracks at a speed of up to 250 km per hour.