PM may announce Rs 36k-cr expansion plan for Rourkela plant

He will be inaugurating the modernised unit of the state-owned firm on April 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce a Rs 36,000-crore capacity expansion plan for SAIL’s Rourkela steel plant when he inaugurates the modernised unit of the state-owned firm on April 1.

During his maiden visit to the Odisha-based plant, where a Rs 12,000 crore modernisation and expansion programme has recently been completed to raise capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per annum from 2 mtpa earlier, Modi may also unleash SAIL’s “Vision-2025”.

Sources said SAIL has finalised its blueprint for future expansion which envisions raising the capacity of the company further to 50 mtpa by 2025 with an approximate investment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in sync with the country’s plan to treble its installed capacity from 100 mtpa now.

This is over and above the ongoing Rs 72,000 crore investment that will take its capacity to 23.46 mtpa from 13.8 mtpa now. This phase will be completed by the middle of the next year.

“The Prime Minister is very hopeful of the potential that can be tapped in the iron and steel sector of the Eastern region. He may deliberate upon the need and his government’s commitment to unfurl that potential in his speech after inaugurating the expanded facility of RSP on April 1,” a source said.

As per Vision-2025, SAIL plans to enhance RSP’s capacity further to 10.8 mtpa entailing a Rs 36,000 crore investment in the plant in Odisha. After completion of this phase, RSP will be SAIL’s second largest after Bokaro. Work on the next phase of expansion will also immediately start.

The state-run steel maker also plans to undertake further expansion in its two other integrated steel-making facilities in the eastern region taking the cumulative capacity to 25.8 mtpa taking into account company’s plan to raise capacity of the Durgapur unit to 9.3 mtpa and IISCO at 5.7 mtpa.

SAIL also plans to enhance capacity of its Bokaro unit to 14.1 mtpa and Bhilai’s to 10.5 mtpa in its Vision-2025.

RSP is the country’s first integrated steel plant in the public sector.It was set up in 1960 with German collaboration. It is SAIL’s only plant that produces silicon steels for power sector, pipes for the oil and gas sector and tin plates for the packaging industry.

Among the new facilities that are installed as part of the RSP’s modernisation and expansion plan in the current phase is a blast furnace, named “Durga”, with a capacity of 4,060 cubic metres.