Confusion over anniversary of India's first blast furnace

Celebration of the golden jubilee of the firing of first furnace of the country, proposed by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) at Bhilai, has created confusion and resentment among a cross section of people here.

“Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) is the first steel plant in the country. Its first blast furnace was commissioned on February 3, 1959, while the blast furnace of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) was commissioned on February 4, 1959,” trade union bodies said. “How can Bhilai be the first steel plant? It is RSP,” they claimed.

The reaction came following publication of news items on observing the golden jubilee of the firing of the first furnace of India by SAIL at Bhilai in February, 2009, quoting steel ministry’s official sources in New Delhi.

 

“RSP, being the first integrated public sector steel plant of the country, has got every right to celebrate the golden jubilee on February 3, 2009,” Bidyadhar Barik, working president of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha of Orissa State Council.

The Mazdoor Sabha leader has urged the SAIL authorities and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to give “due dignity to RSP in this regard, otherwise, the workers will resort to agitation”.

RSP was the first of three steel plants taken up in the public sector on December 31, 1953, according to an agreement reached between the Indian government and consortium consisting of Thyssen and Demag, Aktingeselischaft, Disburg, to set up a steel plant at Rourkela with an initial capacity of 500,000 tonnes, Barik said in a statement here.

Subsequently, a supplementary agreement was signed in July 1955 to set up a 1-million tonnes plant. The coke oven battery No 1 was commissioned on December 3, 1958, and the blast furnace was commissioned on February 3, 1959, the trade union leader said, adding the blast furnace of BSP was commissioned on February 4, 1959.

According to Sangram Parida, executive secretary, Animal Rescue and Maintenance Youth (ARMY), a leading social organisation of Rourkela, the first President of the country, Dr Rajendra Prasad, inaugurated the plate reading as “Production of iron in the first blast furnace in public sector was inaugurated by Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of India, on Tuesday, February 3, 1959, at Rourkela, Orissa”.

Official report from New Delhi said the government had set up a committee to prepare a road map for observing the golden jubilee of the firing of the first furnace in India by the SAIL plant, a milestone in the history of steel production in the country.