Bokaro Steel Plant

Bokaro Steel Plant gate

Bokaro Steel project in the late 1950s, as political elites in several other states of India made the case for building a steel plant in Bokaro rather than in Bihar.The factors other than natural endowment were involved in the decision — after all, rich deposits could be found in various locations throughout the country. As several scholars have noted, certain non-economic imperatives related to the project of post-colonial nation-building played a significant role.

The achievement of Self-Sufficiency is a long process, and even as PM Jawaharlal Nehru worked towards that goal, the nation was drawn into closer involvement with the Soviet Union. In September 1964, the Soviets confirmed their readiness to assist in the construction of the huge Bokaro Steel Plant.[3]

The Soviet Union has traditionally managed to secure generous returns on its aid program in India. The prestigious firm of M. N. Dastur and Company was actively associated with the early planning of the project and had the competence to assess critically the proposed Soviet designs, however, muscled out by the Soviet negotiators from the final aid contract to the chagrin of an articulate and aroused public opinion cutting across most political parties.[4]

The steel plant was incorporated as a limited company in 1964.[5] It was later merged with the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).[6]The steel plant started operation in 1972 with Bokaro city construction completed.

Bokaro Steel Plant seen from a train

Currently, it houses five blast furnaces with a total capacity to produce 5.8 MT of liquid steel.[7] The plant is undergoing a mass modernisation drive after which its output capacity is expected to be 12 MT.

An upgrade of the plant was also done in the 1990s in its steel refining units and continuous casting machines. Initially, about 64 moujas (a mouja may have several village units) had been acquired for the plant. Of the total land acquired, only 7,765 ha was used to set up the steel plant. The rest has been given by SAIL to the private parties without government’s approval.

Bokaro Steel Plant is designed to produce a wide range of products:

1. Hot rolled coils
2. Hot rolled plates
3. Hot rolled sheets
4. Cold rolled coils (CRM)
5. Cold rolled sheets
6. Tin mill black plates
7. Galvanised plain and corrugated sheets
8. Oxygen gas
9. Hydrogen gas
10. Coke oven byproducts
11. Railway tracks
12. DMR grade
13. Steel pipes
14. low weight Stainless steel
15. Jackal steel
16. SeQR TMT Bars

Bokaro has provided a strong raw material base for a variety of modern engineering industries including automobile, pipe and tube, LPG cylinder, barrel and drum producing industries.

Bokaro Steel Plant has achieved a net profit of Rs 600 crore during the financial year 2022-23, which is 45% of SAIL's total profit of Rs 1330 crore.[8]

Bokaro steel plant uses majority of the Blast furnace equipment from Heavy Engineering Corporation, a PSU from Ranchi and some of the equipment's are used from Larsen & Toubro.[9]

• Sutinder Bhatia (1 January 1991). Bokaro steel plant: some economic aspects. Popular Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-7154-540-7.
• Padma Desai (1972). The Bokaro steel plant: a study of Soviet economic assistance. North-Holland Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-444-10388-8.
• Sengupta, Somnath (14 May 2018). "Legends of Indian Football : Peter Thangaraj". thehardtackle.com. Mumbai: The Hard Tackle. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2022.

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