NEW DELHI, July 26: The Ministry of Railways has alleged that poor quality steel in railway tracks, manufactured by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), is responsible for as many as six train accidents between 1995 and 1996.

The Ministry says that the rails, which should have a life span of 30 years, developed fractures and showed flaking within a few months of use. This allegedly resulted in derailments.

SAIL, however, denies these charges saying there could have been extraneous factors causing the defects in the tracks. Adding a twist to the controversy are some senior SAIL officers who say that an ``import lobby'' is spreading the allegations.

Last month, for the first time, the Railways Ministry floated a global tender for the supply of 5 lakh tonnes of rails which would otherwise have been sold by SAIL for Rs 1,000 crore. The rails are to be supplied over a period of five years and an advance guarantee order will be given by the Ministry to the lowest bidder.

According to a senior Railway official, several international firms, including Sydney Steel and British Steel, evinced interest in the order. However, SAIL has already got its order to produce 4.5 lakh tonnes of rails for the Railways for 1997-98. At present, SAIL supplies tracks weighing 4.2 lakh tonnes to the Railways, worth about Rs 800 crores. There is a surplus requirement of 1 lakh tonnes which SAIL has not been able to meet.

Recently, M Ravinderan, Member, Engineering, Railway Board, sent a strongly worded letter to the Ministry of Steel giving details of six train accidents and linking their cause to defects in the newly manufactured rails.

Addressed to J K Bagchi, Secretary in the Ministry of Steel, the letter, dated April 28, 1997, says: ``Keeping in view the safety of rail passengers you will agree that urgent steps are required to be taken by SAIL to improve the quality of rails so as to conform to the required specifications and somewhat match with world standards.''

When contacted, Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, ``When tracks which are a few months or a few years old start developing defects and cause accidents, it is a very serious thing,'' he said. ``I have brought all this to the notice of the Steel Minister but the quality of rails has still not improved.''

According to the Railway Ministry, the defects are in three categories:* Hydrogen flaking: this occurs due to the hydrogen content being more than permissible in liquid steel.

* Inclusion/piping : this Railway mishaps is purely a lapse in the manufacturing process of rails.

*Excessive residual stress: this occurs due to lapse in the slow cooling of rails and subsequent straightening of the same.

The Railways Ministry claims that it has been repeatedly alerting SAIL to improve its processes and equipment.

For example, SAIL was asked to introduce on-line ultrasonic testing of rails during the manufacturing stage. This has not been done yet.

SAIL chairman Arvind Pandey admitted that there was a case of defective rails which had been manufactured in the Bhilai Steel plant on November 18 and 19.

However, he insisted that these defects were detected when the rails were being laid.

``After this incident a series of quality-improvement measures have been adopted in consulation with the Railway Development Standards Organisation in Lucknow and no other serious lapse has been noticed,'' he said. As to the upgradation of equipment, Pandey said that SAIL was in the process of ordering an ultrasonic machine costing about Rs 8 crores.

Shoeb Ahmed, SAIL's Chief of Corporate Affairs, said that the defects could have been caused by some extraneous factors, like defective sleepers on which the rails are laid or because of the ground slipping underneath due to floods.

``In not a single case have investigations revealed that defective rails have caused an accident. If there have been accidents, other factors could be responsible,'' he said.

Other senior officials in SAIL pointed out that even as they were making serious efforts to improve quality, what they termed as the ``import lobby'' was working overtime in the Railway Ministry.

Mishaps caused due to hydrogen flaking

* 12.1.95: passenger train: Gainsari-Tulsipur, NE: Failure initiated from hydrogen flaking.

* 21.4.95: Goods train: Anas, Western: fatigue from inclusion.

* 3. 1.9.95: 6512 Express: Guntakal Wadi, SC: fatigue from shatter cracks in railhead.

* 22.11.95: Goods train: Tundla-Gaziabad, Northern: residual stress in rail.

* 5.3.96: 4791 Bikaner Mail: Sadulpur-Rewari, Northern: fatigue caused by hydrogen flaking in rail head.

* 10.4.96: Goods train: Dayana-Gangapur, Western: splitting of rail head due to mild steel plate inclusion.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.