India's largest blast furnace starts operating at SAIL plant

Furnace is built at an approximate expenditure of Rs 1,600 crore

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) today said the country's largest blast furnace has become operational at its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).

'With the start of the new state-of-the-art furnace, hot metal capacity at RSP will increase to 4.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from its present capacity of 2 MTPA,' SAIL said in a statement.

'Durga, the largest blast furnace of the country, has become operational,' the company said. 'Built at an approximate expenditure of Rs 1,600 crore, the furnace has a useful volume of 4,060 cubic metres.'

SAIL chief CS Verma visited the plant today and inspected the facilities, according to the statement.

With a daily hot metal production of 8,000 tonnes per day, the furnace has a life of 20 years and is equipped with systems such as pulverised coal injection, among others, the statement said.

The environment-friendly furnace ensures minimum emissions and recovers waste energy to the fullest. It also has a closed-loop cooling system, resulting in almost zero water discharge, it added.