Indian steelmaker Tata Steel Limited and South Eastern Railways (SER), a division of national transporter Indian Railways (IR), have inked a pact to collaborate on sustainable rail infrastructure using slag-based aggregates, company sources said on Thursday, March 28.
Tata Aggreto, a greener substitute of natural aggregates used in road construction, and Tata Nirman, used as a raw material in the manufacturing of fly ash bricks and cement making, will be used in construction of blanketing layers in railway tracks, the sources said.
In the endeavour to transform steel slag into sustainable aggregates, Tata Steel has set up an accelerated weathering facility for processing LD slag through steam ageing.
The use of slag-based manufactured aggregates helps in the preservation of biodiversity by reducing the need for mining of natural aggregates and eliminates the requirement for transportation of aggregates across large distances.
Tata Aggreto is India’s first steel slag-based branded product, extensively used in the construction of national highways, which has helped in conserving natural aggregates and minimizing the environmental footprint. It is produced out of 0-65 mm processed LD slag with four different size ranges for convenience in the design mix.