Particulars of Bokaro Steel Plant, Organization, Functions and Duties
Bokaro At A Glance :
As the fourth integrated steel plant in the Public Sector conceived in 1959, Bokaro Steel Plant actually started taking shape in 1965 in collaboration with the Soviet Union. The collaboration agreement was signed on 25th January 1965. The design of the plant was envisaged with a capacity of 1.7 million tonnes (MT) per annum in stage-I and 4 MT per annum in stage-II, with provision for further expansion. The construction work started on 6th April 1968.
Bokaro Steel Plant was originally incorporated as a limited company on 29th January 1964. With the formation of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) on 24 January 1973, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIL and on 1st May 1978 it was eventually merged with SAIL through the Public Sector Iron & Steel Companies (Restructuring & Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1978.
The Plant is hailed as the country’s first Swadeshi steel plant, built with maximum indigenous content in terms of equipment, material and know-how. Its first phase of 1.7 MT ingot steel commenced on 2nd October 1972 with the commissioning of the first Blast Furnace and completed on 26th February 1978 with the commissioning of the third Blast Furnace. All units of 4 MT stage have already been commissioned. The Plant is designed to produce flat products like Hot Rolled Coils, Hot Rolled Plates, Hot Rolled Sheets, Cold Rolled Coils, Cold Rolled Sheets, Tin Mill Black Plates (TMBP) and Galvanised Plain and Corrugated (GP/GC) Sheets. Bokaro has provided a strong raw material base for a variety of modern engineering industries including automobile, pipe and tube, LPG cylinder, barrel and drum producing industries.
To keep pace with the latest trends in steel making, the first phase of modernisation was sanctioned on 23rd July 1993. The new features in SMS-II include Continuous Casting Machines and Steel Refining Unit. The Steel Refining Unit was inaugurated on 19th September, 1997 and the Continuous Casting Machine on 25th April, 1998. The modernisation of the Hot Strip Mill saw addition of new features like high pressure de-scalers, work roll bending, hydraulic automatic gauge control, quick work roll change, laminar cooling etc. New walking beam reheating furnaces are replacing the less efficient pusher type furnaces. A new hydraulic coiler has been added and two of the existing ones revamped. With the completion of Hot Strip Mill modernisation, Bokaro is producing top quality hot rolled products that are well accepted in the global market. The capacity of the plant has gone up to 4.5 MT of liquid steel post?modernisation.
The Township :
Bokaro Steel City is located in idyllic surroundings on the southern bank of river Damodar with Garga, one of its tributaries, meandering along the southern and eastern outskirts of the city. On the north, the city is flanked by the high ranges of the Parasnath Hills and on the south; just beyond the river Garga, it is enveloped by the Satanpur Hillocks. The vast rolling topography of the city is interspersed by graded valleys and winding rivulets typical of the Chhotanagpur Plateau. Within two decades of Bokaro Steel coming into existence, the city has blossomed into a regional urban centre of over 8 lakh people from different parts of the country, making the city a Mini Bharat. Bokaro is located on the Gomoh-Chandrapura-Muri railway line. Direct train services to all the four metros are available from Bokaro. It is located centrally between the traingle of the other three major cities of Jharkhand - Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad - all of which are well connected by road and railway.