Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers and Steel Mr Ram Vilas Paswan today commissioned three new production facilities set up at a total cost of Rs. 187 crore at Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL). Presently under stabilisation, the facilities have been added as part of SAILÔÇÖs Rs. 37,000-crore expansion plan that is currently under implementation. SAIL Chairman Mr S.K. Roongta has accompanied the Minister on his visit to Bhilai.
BhilaiÔÇÖs four-strand continuous Wire Rod Mill with the capacity to produce 0.4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of wire rods from rolled billets was commissioned in 1967. Strands ÔÇÿCÔÇÖ and ÔÇÿDÔÇÖ had been revamped in 1995. The proposal to revamp the ÔÇÿBÔÇÖ strand at a cost of around Rs. 75 crore was approved by the SAIL Board in December 2004. Modernisation of the strand has provided the Mill with facilities to produce wire rods of TMT grade and smaller section of 5.5 to 7.0 mm with consistent productivity besides improving tolerance, ovality and yield of the rods. M/s Morgardshammar AB of Sweden was the technology supplier for the project that was executed in three packages. Other companies which participated in the project are M/s BEC Ltd of Bhilai, M/s ABB Ltd of Bangalore and M/s HSCL.
The Plate Mill of Bhilai Steel Plant, commissioned in 1983, is a two-stand continuous mill with capacity to produce 0.95 mtpa of plates in thicknesses ranging from 5 to 120 mm from cast slabs. The SAIL Board had approved the proposal for installation of hydraulic automatic gauge control (HAGC) and plan view rolling (PVR) in Plate Mill at a cost of around Rs. 52 crore in January 2005. The benefits that will accrue to the Mill due to the new facilities include production of plates with closer thickness tolerances, achievement of high rectangularity of plates, yield improvement, cropping at exact length, etc. The project was executed on turnkey basis by M/s Danieli Automation SpA, Italy along with their consortium member M/s Danieli Engineering India Ltd of Kolkata.
Equipped with three 12 MW turbo-generators, 10 turbo-blowers and six boilers, Power & Blowing Station (PBS) of BSP meets the captive power requirements of critical units and supplies air blast to blast furnaces as well as process steam through steam boilers for meeting the needs of various shops. The proposal to install a 15 MW turbo-generator at a cost of around Rs. 48 crore, in place of turbo generator # 3 of PBS that had outlived its use, was approved by the SAIL Board in May 2004.