Jindal Steel and Power Ltd has bagged "20 per cent" of the Rs 2,500 crore order to supply long rails to Indian Railways which had floated a global tender for it, JSPL Chairman Naveen Jindal said today.

The Railways had invited the global tender for procuring around 4.87 lakh tonnes of rails to meet the supply shortfall from the state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

This is the first time in three decades that rail procurement has been opened for the private sector.

Sources said that the value of the order bagged by JSPL comes to about Rs 536 crore.

"We got the order for the rail.... We have been in business since 2003. After 15 years, for the first time, we are amongst the one...," Jindal said.

"As only the second Indian producer (after SAIL), we have got 20 per cent of the order," he said at a conference on the steel sector.

At the conference, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh stressed on the need for participation of Indian companies in major infrastructure projects.

The financial bids for the order were opened last week in which seven foreign steel companies and JSPL from India had submitted its bids.

JSPL was the only Indian steel maker in the fray, and was expected to get an assured order of 20 per cent under the 'Make in India' clause.

"It is a historic moment for the company. We were trying for long. It is a proud moment for India. We will start supplying soon," Jindal said after the conference.

N A Ansari, CEO, JSPL Steel Business said the company would dispatch the first consignment in August.

The company said in a statement that the order is to supply around 1 lakh tonnes of rails to the Indian Railways over a period of one year.

JSPL is the only private company that produces rails in India. It was already supplying rails to various countries like Iran and Bangladesh.

The company operates the country's most advanced one million tonne per annum (MTPA) rail mill at its 3.6 MTPA integrated steel plant at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. It can manufacture single piece rails of up to 121 metre.

The foreign entities, which participated in the global tender are Sumitomo Corporation, Angang Group International, Voestalpine Schienen, East Metals, CRM Hong Kong, British Steel France Rail and Atlantic Steel.

Till now, the national transporter was procuring rails from government-owned SAIL.

SAIL produces rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh.

The Railways had decided on an extra global tender after anticipating that SAIL would not be able to supply the 7,17,000 tonnes required for 2017-18 and 2018-19, as estimated at that time.

The Indian Railways is looking at 4,000 km of track renewal in each of the next two financial years, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Its estimated cost for 2018-19 is a little above Rs 10,000 crore.

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