Released railway sleepers for auction
Mangaluru, March 04, 2021: As the bidding for e-auction of the released Railway sleepers is scheduled on March 11, 2021, Palakkad Division, looking for potential buyers for its released sleeper stocks over the Division, released PSC sleepers available at various yards over the division.
At Nileshwar yard in north Kerala alone, over one lakh sleepers are stacked. Used Sleepers are also available at Tikkoti (50,000), Shoranur Junction (2,000), and Mangaluru Junction (25,000). It is listed for auction in the IREPS portal and the bidding for around 45,000 sleepers will be held on 11th March 2021.
*Use of sleepers*
The buyers purchase these released sleepers mainly to take out the iron frame and clip cups of the sleeper to sell it for recycling. The iron frame and clip cups of the sleeper together weigh around 15 kg. But due to environmental concerns over the dismantling of sleepers, conventional buyers are not showing much enthusiasm.
Therefore Railway is looking for buyers for sleepers from non-conventional users. Due to their strength and length, the sleepers can be put into many uses. Experts in the field suggest that released sleepers can be used for road laying, leveling of the surface, boundary formation, marking of boundaries, as a foundation for making boundary walls, etc.
Dimension
The length of a sleeper is 2.750 meters. The sleeper has a trapezoidal cross-section having top width of 150 mm and bottom width of 249 mm and a depth of 210 mm. The weight of the sleeper is 286.5 kg (approximately). In the bulk procurement, the released Sleeper will cost nearly ₹ 200. The life of a Sleeper is around 25 years. For the purchase of a PSC Broad Gauge Standard sleeper, Railway spends around ₹2,250.
