'Modernisation of SAIL's IISCO steel plant by March'

Upgradation and modernisation of steel major SAIL's Burnpur-based IISCO steel plant at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore would be completed by the end of this financial year, a company spokesman has said.

Post modernisation, the plant's capacity would go up to 2.9 million tonnes (MT) of hot metal from the existing 0.4 MT, he said.

The major facilities include a new 7 metre tall coke oven battery, two sinter machines, a new blast furnace of 4,060 m3 volume with top pressure recovery turbine, three 150 tonne basic oxygen furnace converters, two 6-strand billet casters and one 4-strand beam blank/bloom caster.

Besides, they include universal section mill, wire rod and bar mill with auxiliary and service facilities as well.

The new coke oven battery has commenced trial operation and providing coke support to sister steel plants. It has supplied more than 2.0 lakh tonne of coke to them so far, the spokesman said here.

Cutting-edge technologies in the coke-making have been adopted in the new battery, which complied with the global emission norms, he said.

Total upgradation and modernisation, he said, would be complete by March next year.

The other key unit to start hot trials is the sinter plant having production capacity of 3.8 MT. The sinter from the unit is also being dispatched to sister units.

Besides the coke oven and sinter plant, the wire rod mill has also commenced trial production. Having an annual production capacity of 0.5 MTPA, the mill will produce cold headed steel for fasteners, critical wire rope applications and special quality electrodes.

The product portfolio offered variable size ranging from 5.5 to 22.0 mm diameter in low, medium and high carbon steel including high quality TMT grades, he said.

Meanwhile, SAIL Chairman C S Verma visited Burnpur yesterday to review the modernisation and expansion work of the plant.

He discussed overall strategy for fast tracking of the execution of balance packages.

Verma also interacted with a large cross section of employees and exhorted them to work on a war-footing for early commissioning and fast stabilisation of units which have commenced production.