Railways to float fresh global tender for 4.5 lakh MT rails worth Rs 2700 crore

The railways will float a fresh global tender for the supply of 4.5 lakh metric ton of rails valued at around Rs 2,700 crore, after an earlier bid failed to take off.

This comes after the national transporter placed a developmental order of Rs 536 crore for one lakh tonne of rails to Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) as part of a global tender.

However, the remaining bidders, including Sumitomo Corporation, Angang Group International, Voestalpine Schienen, East Metals, CRM Hong Kong, British Steel France Rail and Atlantic Steel, were edged out since they did not meet the criteria set by the railways.

"We will float a fresh global tender soon as we are yet to meet the shortfall of rails from SAIL," said a senior official of the railways.

The requirement of rails for Indian Railways for 2018-2019 is around 16.66 lakh metric ton, while SAIL will be able to provide only about 10 lakh metric ton, the official said.

While for the year 2017-2018, the requirement was of 14.59 lakh metric ton, SAIL as per their latest projection has given commitment to supply 9.5 lakh metric ton rails during this period.

These global tenders are the first instances in which the railways has looked beyond the state-run SAIL as its supplier.

The additional rail tracks will help the railways towards clearing the track renewal backlog, officials said.

The railways has a track length of around 1,15,000 km, making it the world's largest network under a single management.