Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) of SAIL, which is the sole indigenous supplier of rails to the Indian Railways, has been given the new specification, IRS-12-96, by the Railways.

In order to meet the demand for rails under the new specification, BSP has started updating its steel melting shop II with the installation of a Ruhrstahi Heraus (RH) degassing unit by Technometaal of Germany and Vai India Ltd on a turnkey basis. The unit cost BSP Rs 40 crore.

A highly-placed source in SAIL told The Financial Express that the unit will be ready for commissioning by next December. The Ranchi-based Centre for Engineering & Technology (CET) has been appointed consultant for the project.

The source said: "The quality requirement of the rails under the new specification will be more stringent. Hydrogen content below the specified limitsis one of the critical parameters of high grade rails. Hydrogen in rail steel originates from the moisture content of the input materials for steel making and as such cannot be completely eliminated."

The source also said the degassing unit is one of the most effective technologies for removal of hydrogen from liquid steel and leading producers of rail in the world use this technology.

He said the process involves circulation of liquid steel from the laddle through vacuum along with bulbing of argon gas. The circulation provides exposure of small quantities of droplets of liquid steel at a time to the vacuum thus ensuring effective removal of hydrogen.

Last fiscal, SAIL had a problem with the Railways over the quality of rails supplied by BSP. Following the controversy the Railways rejected some rails. The controversy also led to the setting up of a joint committee which recommended several measures to improve steel-making, casting and rolling for manufacturing of rails.

In 1997-98, BSP supplied overfour lakh tonne of rails to the Indian Railways.

For the current year, BSP has set a target of 52 kg per metre weight of 90 ultimate tensile strength (UTS) rails of 305000 tonne which will fetch a net sales realisation of Rs 555.37 crore. Besides BSP has planned to produce 60 kg per metre weight of 90 UTS specification rails of 120000 tonne which will earn a little over Rs 232 crore.

Source said the life of rails in terms of gross million tonne (GMT) of traffic has increased over the years since the Railways is making its specifications increasingly stringent. As a result frequency of replacement of rails for the same traffic condition has come down substantially.