Bhilai, Jan 21: On Monday, Bhilai Steel Plant crossed the historic landmark of 200 Million Tonnes of Hot Metal production. The journey of Hot Metal production for Bhilai Steel Plant began on February 4, 1959 with the first tapping of Hot Metal from the first Blast Furnace in the presence of Dr Rajendra Prasad, Independent India’s first President.
The Bhilai collective celebrated the occasion with the reading out the congratulatory message from Chairman SAIL, AK Chaudhary. Suryavanshi, GM (Blast Furnace) in his welcome address traced the history of blast furnace operations in Bhilai. Retired stalwarts of Blast Furnaces including BL Dhingra, BK Agrawal, AK Loomba, AS Khokhar and SB Singh were felicitated by AK Rath, CEO, BSP. The stalwarts shared their experiences in what was an emotional moment for them.
In his address, CEO congratulated each and every member of Blast Furnaces, serving and retired as also all those shops and departments associated in the iron making process. BSP has kept its flag flying high through many ups and downs that the organisation has gone through, he added.
PK Dash, ED (Works) in his address said that Bhilai’s blast furnaces have several technological firsts to its credit. Bhilai was also the first steel plant in the country to have crossed the 5 million tonne mark in annual hot metal production. He congratulated the entire team of blast furnaces and associated shops and departments for this milestone achievement of crossing 200 MT mark in cumulative hot metal production. A short film tracing the history and present times of Bhilai Steel Plant was screened on the occasion. Among the other senior officers present were BP Nayak, ED (Finance); AK Kabisatapathy, ED (Projects); Manas Biswas, ED (Mines & Rowghat); SK Basar, ED (MM); Dr SK Issar, Director I/c M & HS; KK Singh, ED (P&A) and General Managers.