RSP's Rs 16,000 cr expansion plan to be ready by Dec

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) which is in advanced stage of implementing Rs 16,000-crore expansion plan of its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) hopes to commission major facilities by December this year.

The capacity upgrade plan will ramp up hot metal and steel output of RSP from the existing two million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 4.5 mtpa.

“Under its Rs 16,000 crore capacity expansion programme, SAIL will install its biggest blast furnace (4016 cubic metres) at RSP. The blast furnace along with some other major facilities are expected to be added to the steel plant somewhere in December”, said SAIL chairman and managing director (CMD) C S Verma after a meeting with chief minister Naveen Patnaik here.

SAIL is also planning to scale up capacity of its three captive iron ore mines in the state- Barsuan, Kalta and Bolani.

“Together, these three mines have an annual mining capacity of seven mtpa. There are some issues pertaining to expansion of capacity of these mines which we hope to resolve soon”, said Verma.

On the proposed joint venture (JV) between Posco and SAIL, he said, “We are continuing dialogue with Posco. There are a couple of issues which will be resolved very soon.”

SAIL and Posco were to sign a JV pact for a three mtpa steel plant at Bokaro at an investment of Rs 13,000 crore. The steel plant was supposed to make use of Finex technology patented by Posco.

Shareholding has been one of the stumbling blocks for the JV to shape up. While Posco has been insisting to have the majority stake in the venture with 51 per cent stake, SAIL is in favour of equal stakes by both the firms.

Meanwhile, SAIL intended to upgrade its multi-speciality hospital at Rourkela into a medical college.

The timeline of establishment of the medical college is not decided yet.