New Delhi, July 12 (IANS). According to a statement from the Steel Ministry, Union Steel Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy began his three-day visit to West Bengal on Sunday with a detailed review of the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur. He also inaugurated a new RCC water reservoir to meet the future need of increasing the capacity of the plant.
The visit took full stock of the plant’s ongoing expansion projects, production facilities, infrastructure, sustainability initiatives and employee welfare. This reaffirms the commitment of the Government of India to strengthen India’s public sector steel ecosystem.
The recently constructed Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) water reservoir has a storage capacity of 84,000 cubic metres. It is designed to meet the water requirements of COB-10 as well as to support the future 4.08 MTPA expansion project at IISCO Steel Plant under Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
Officials told the Union Minister that this integrated system includes a recently constructed booster pump house, a special pump house for COB-10 and a process water pump house (which is currently under construction). All these together will form a closed-loop water circulation system, which will save more water, reduce wastage and significantly improve operational efficiency.
Union Minister Kumaraswamy began his visit by inspecting the COB-12 (Stamped Charge Coke Oven Battery) project, one of the major capacity building initiatives at IISCO.
Senior officials briefed him about the progress of the project, which includes battery propellant, coke dry cooling plant (CDQ), by-product plant and modern systems for environment protection. These are expected to promote sustainable steel production as well as significantly improve operational efficiency.
Reviewing the project, Kumaraswamy stressed that timely completion of the strategic expansion projects will play a vital role in strengthening India’s steel manufacturing capabilities.
Kumaraswamy later inspected the blast furnace of the plant and reviewed its operational performance, production parameters, and ongoing modernization initiatives.
During the review, officials told the Union Minister that the plant has produced 2.9 million tonnes of hot metal during FY 2025-26, showing strong operational performance and continuous improvement in productivity.
Union Minister Kumaraswamy also visited the blast furnace control room, where he witnessed live operations and interacted with engineers and employees handling one of the most critical production units of the plant.
After this, a detailed review meeting was held on the overall performance of IISCO Steel Plant under the chairmanship of the Union Minister.
The meeting was attended by SAIL Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Kumar Panda, Director-in-Charge of IISCO Steel Plant, Executive Directors and senior officials of SAIL. The discussions focused on the plant’s production performance, operational efficiency, ongoing modernization projects, capacity expansion, sustainability initiatives, capital expenditure, technology adoption and future growth strategies.
He also appreciated the huge increase in capital expenditure at the plant. He said that IISCO has made a capital expenditure of Rs 1,860 crore during the financial year 2025-26 compared to Rs 689 crore in the previous financial year.
–IANS
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