IISCO Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is located at Burnpur, near Asansol. The turbulent history of the plant, starting from its pioneering days, has found it a place in industrial history.It was the second integrated steel plant, after Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. (TISCO) at Jamshedpur, to come up in India and for many years, these two were the only steel plants in the country. It has rich history that goes back to the days when James Erskine pioneered the production of iron in this country at nearby Kulti. Modern metallurgy was introduced to India at Kulti with the setting up of the first blast furnace using coal instead of charcoal.
Type : Public Sector Undertaking (Maharatna)
Founded : 1918
Headquarters : Burnpur
Key people : N.K.Jha, ED (I/C)
Industry : Iron & Steel Products Structurals, Rods, Pig Iron
Modernisation inaugurated
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the modernisation programme at Burnpur on 24 December 2006. It is the largest investment in West Bengal in the last ten years.The programme envisages the installation of state-of-the-art environment-friendly and energy-efficient steel making technology. It will help ISP multiply its crude steel production capacity from the present 0.5 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes by the year 2011.
Among the new facilities that will be installed as part of ISP’s expansion are a large-volume blast furnace, coke oven battery, two sinter plants, three converters with continuous billet and beam blank/bloom casters, heavy section mill of 0.6 million tonne capacity and wire rod & bar mill of 1.2 million tonne capacity. Besides increase in steel production, the new facilities will provide the plant with a competitive edge in terms of manpower productivity and other techno-economic parameters like blast furnace productivity, coke rate, energy consumption, etc.