Tata Steel's Europe arm has been awarded a major order worth €80 million in France for supplying railway lines for a new high-speed track between the cities of Bordeaux and Tours. Deliveries will begin from 2014, for the line which will be operational by 2016.

The company will supply 84,000 tonnes of high quality rail for the new South-Europe-Atlantique line — a 302-km long line, which will be one of the world's largest infrastructure projects launched in the last decade, a company statement said.

Trains travelling at 300 kmph will connect south-western France with high-speed rail services from northern Europe, including London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Mr Gérard Glas, Head of Tata Steel's Rail Sector said, “This is a prestigious project which we are delighted to have secured. This order is also an endorsement of our company strategy to invest in premium steel products.

We are currently ramping up production at our Hayange rail rolling mill after the completion of a €35-million upgrade. The investment means we can now produce 108-metre rail at our facilities in France and the UK.”

The steel will be manufactured in Scunthorpe, UK, before being rolled into rail at Tata Steel's mill in Hayange, north-east France. The company will also supply switches and crossings to the construction consortium COSEA.

Incidentally, Tata Steel had supplied the rail from its Hayange plant for the track on which a TGV broke the world train speed record in 2007. The French train reached a speed of 574.8 kph (357mph) between Paris and Strasbourg.

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