Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) has got a large order to supply around 88,000 tonnes of long rails to the Tata–Aldesa joint venture for use in the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.
The Naveen Jindal-promoted company will use its special freight train operator licence from the Indian Railways to transport the rails from its mother plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, to the project site. Tata-Aldesa is building more than 300 km of rail lines of the Eastern Freight Corridor between Khurja and Kanpur, after securing the project from the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India.
“This is the first time that such an order has been placed for supply of long rail panels of 260 metres on a company other than SAIL. Normally, single rail is only 13-metre long,” said a JPSL spokesperson. JSPL wants to use this policy to lower the transportation cost for its products. JSPL decided to procure special wagons and place orders for three rakes as the Railways doesn’t not have wagons to transport long rails. “The design of these wagons has been approved by Research Design and Standards Organisation and it is indigenous,” the JSPL spokesperson said.
The steelmaker proposes to operate these rakes from October-November of 2014.
To transport these rails, the company has submitted a registration fee of ₹10 crore for the special freight train operator (SFTO) licence. It will get discounted freight rates while carrying these rails, as a part of this policy.
The Railways has put in place a policy that would allow companies to invest in specially designed wagons for carrying a particular commodity.
The policy is on the lines of auto freight train operator, which allows companies to invest in specially designed wagons to carry automobiles.
According to the policy, there are four categories, under which companies can invest to be an SFTO. One category allows investment in bulk fertiliser, bulk cement and fly ash, while another category includes bulk chemicals and steel products.
The third category allows companies to invest in steel products requiring specially designed wagons and the fourth includes molasses, edible oil and caustic soda.