SAIL embarks on major expansion plan

Burnpur : Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has embarked on a major expansion-cum-modernisation plan at a cost of Rs.72,000 crore that aims to push steel production to 24 million tonne by 2013 from 14 million tonne at present.

Asserting that he would brook no further delays in completion of crucial projects in the pipeline, SAIL Chairman C. S. Verma said the company had decided to achieve 100 per cent targets on production and project commissioning asking all its managers to finalise advance action plans.

Mr. Verma, who has undertaken a detailed visit of various plants and expansion programme facilities all over the country in the recent weeks, said the modernisation-cum-expansion programme of the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur in West Bengal was in the advanced stage of either completion or commissioning. Among project sites he visited are the new coke oven battery and its interconnecting zone, raw material handling system, railway yard, water treatment plant, power & blowing station, coke & sinter despatch yard, basic oxygen furnace and wire & rod mill. The ISP project is being implemented at a cost of Rs.16, 408 crore.