SAIL Chhattisgarh arm makes special rods for Mumbai coastal road project

Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) Chhattisgarh arm Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) has developed a new product to be used in the high-speed Mumbai coastal road project.

During a visit to customer premises in Mumbai last month, the contractor (involved in the project) desired that wire rod mill, if possible, should produce TMT Fe-550D wire rods, a senior SAIL official said. “A new product of TMT-8mm, Fe-550D was developed for the first time from an old WRM in C-Strand at SAIL-BSP,” a BSP spokesperson said, adding the product would help in earning extra revenue compared to the base grade Fe500D for SAIL-BSP.

For developing the new product, steel melting shop III produced the required heat with rich chemistry of carbon and manganese, the spokesperson said. The input billets cast with that material help the TMT bars achieve the required strength and optimum ductility with existing parameters. 

The rolling parameters like furnace temperature, laying head temperature, water quenching parameters, and a number of hot turns at the ends of coils were monitored and recorded during rolling. The online samples of the first three coils were taken and sent for mechanical testing.

“The online results were a bit higher than the required value so few adjustments were done in quenching parameters. The developed quality was successfully rolled in C-Strand for the next two days to produce 1,477 tons of TMT Fe-550D with the required mechanical properties,” the spokesperson added.

One of the prestigious road projects being constructed in India’s financial capital, the 8-lane under construction Mumbai coastal road project will be 29.20-km long and run along Mumbai's western coastline connecting Marine Lines in the south to Kandivali in the north. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) awarded contracts for the project in four packages in October 2018. According to officials, Larsen and Toubro was awarded package 1 and 4 at a cost of Rs 7,489 crore and a joint venture between Hindustan Construction Company (55 per cent) and Hyundai Development Company (45 per cent) was awarded package 2 and 3 at a cost of Rs 2,126 crore. 

The coastal road is likely to be used by 130,000 vehicles daily, and is expected to reduce travel time between South Mumbai and the Western Suburbs from 2 hours to just 40 minutes. The first phase, which is under-construction, is a 10.58 km section from Princess Street flyover to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The 19.22 km second phase will connect Bandra end of the BWSL and Kandivali.