Rourkela: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has surpassed a historic milestone of 100 million tonne (MT) Hot Metal production on 5th July, 2021, thus entering the elite club of Steel Industries with such a distinction.
The journey that had commenced on 3rd February 1959, with the then Hon’ble President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad commissioning the first Blast Furnace ‘Parvati’, has today entered a higher orbit. In the last more than 62 years, RSP has consistently reinforced its commitment by providing one of the strongest metals available on planet Earth for use in every aspect of life and living, right from household items to infrastructure and defence applications.
It is noteworthy that the last 50 MT Hot Metal production was achieved in only 18 years. More over, the last 10 million tons of hot metal was tapped in a matter of 2 years 8 months, while the last one year witnessed 4.3 Million Tonnes of Hot Metal even with two furnace operation for few months, which conveys the resilience and very high level of commitment in the RSP Collective.
RSP CEO Dipak Chattaraj visited Blast Furnaces department in the morning along with top management of the Plant, to congratulate the collective for the remarkable achievement. A miniature of the 100 MT monument was unveiled and a ceremonial cake was cut at the BF-5 Control Room, to commemorate the occasion. Thereafter, a helium inflated balloon with the greetings message of 100 MT Hot Metal production was also floated from the administrative building of the plant, in presence of Senior Officers, representatives of Trade Unions and Executive Association. In the afternoon, the 100 MT Monument on the Ring Road between Sector-2 and Sector-3 of the Steel Township was unveiled by CEO, RSP in presence of Senior Executives of the Plant. Notably, the 4.8 metre high monument weighing 1.6 tonnes has been developed in-house by the skilled collective of Shops Department of RSP. Plates of various thickness, produced at RSP, has been used in making of the monument, which depicts the plant’s seven-decades long journey of producing 100 million tonnes of hot metal.
Congratulating the CEO Dipak Chattaraj and the entire team for this achievement, Soma Mondal, chairman, SAIL has said, “The milestone has been crossed with the help of efforts put in by thousands of people who have contributed directly and indirectly to the growth of the steel plant which had come up in the remote part of state of Odisha more than 60 years back. To-day, the steel plant and the city of Rourkela are vibrant and brimming with confidence to reach greater heights.”
Applauding the historic feat, Chattaraj extended hearty congratulations to the RSP collective and exhorted them to achieve 4.5 MT Hot Metal production in the current fiscal. The CEO has expressed sincere thanks to all stakeholders of RSP including the Central and State Govt agencies, SAIL Corporate Office and other Units of SAIL, the local business and industry communities, suppliers, customers, contract workers, members of the media and the supporting population for being with RSP all along its journey. The CEO has also expressed gratitude to Hon’ble Union Minister of PNG & Steel and Chairman, SAIL, for their guidance and support all the times.
Raj Vir Singh, ED (Hospital Administration), Pankaj Kumar, ED (Works), S R Suryawanshi, ED (Operations), A K Pradhan, ED (Projects), . P K Satpathy, ED (P&A), C R Mohapatra, CGM In-charge (MM & Marketing), Praveen Nigam, CGM In-charge (F&A), and Dr. B K Hota, CMO In-charge (M&HS) were with CEO during the programs.
