Samta Express renamed for promoting RINL's Vizag Steel

KOLKATA: State owned steel major, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), has decided to hitch a ride on the Indian Railways as part of a major brand promotion exercise for its brand ‘Vizag Steel’. As part of the exercise, the Samta Express has been renamed as Vizag Steel Samta Express. The Hazrat Nizamuddin –Visakhapatnam daily was flagged off by the union railway minister Suresh Prabhu and steel minister Chaudhury Birendra Singh at Nizamuddin station on Thursday.

The train has been emblazoned with Vizag Steel promotional visuals across its entire length. Incidentally, RINL has an annual capacity of 6.3 million tonne and is a leading producer of long steel products like wire-rods, re-bars, structural, squares, rounds etc. catering to construction, infrastructure sectors.

In his address, the steel minister commended Vizag Steel for the initiative adding that such initiatives would not only help Vizag Steel extend its market reach to both urban and rural markets, but would also go a long way in increasing the nation’s per capita steel consumption from 61 kg to the global level of 208 kg, as envisaged by the steel ministry. The railway minister urged other public sector enterprises to take up brand promotion of their products through Indian Railways citing its reach, which is perhaps wider than other medium.

Commenting on the initiative, P Madhusudan, chairman RINL said that steel and Indian Railways have a symbiotic relationship. While steel Industry depends heavily on Railways for transportation of its raw material and finished steel products, steel plants, in turn, supply steel materials for track, rolling stocks, bridges, stations etc. RINL said in a statement it is in the process of taking up manufacture of import substitution products for Railways in line with government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.