Austrak wins $82mn deal to supply concrete sleepers to Adani's

Australian company Austrak has won a contract worth 82 million dollar to supply concrete sleepers to Indian conglomerate Adani Group for its controversy-hit 21.7 billion dollar Carmichael mine project's 388-km rail line.
Under the deal, the Queensland company will deliver the 730,000 concrete sleepers from its Rockhampton centre for the rail line that will take coal from the Carmichael mine to the Abbot Point coal port.
The deal will see Austrak triple its workforce to more than 80 and generate up to 30 supply chain jobs, and provide job security for the two-year life of the contract.
Adani Australia Head of Country and Chief Executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj said: "Adani promised that regional Queenslanders would benefit from our project and here is the proof that we honour our promises and we care about regional Queenslanders.

"This is another step in Adani's plan to build a long- term future with regional Queensland. While others are looking for ways out, we are looking to the future".
He paid tribute to regional Queenslanders for their support of the Adani project.

Austrak would supply more than 730,000 concrete sleepers for the construction of Adani's 388-kms standard gauge rail line from the mine in central western Queensland to the company's bulk coal handling port at Abbot Point near Bowen, he said.
Adani recently signed a 74 million dollar contract with OneSteel in Whyalla for the supply of approximately 54,000 tonnes of railway tracks - almost 800-kilometres of steel if laid end to end.

"This is an even bigger contract to a company that is situated in regional Queensland and employs local people.
"The Carmichael project will open Galilee Basin's high energy, low emission coal field to other miners. That means more jobs in regional Queensland," Janakaraj said.
Adani has claimed that its Carmichael project in Central Queensland would generate 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
On May 30, Adani Group agreed to pay royalties on coal produced from its 16.5 billion dollar Carmichael coal project in Australia after it struck an agreement with the Queensland government to help the controversy-hit project move forward.
The Adani Group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north.