SAIL and RINL to invest over Rs 60,000 cr to boost production

New Delhi, Aug 16 (UNI) Two public sector companies, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) have undertaken ambitious modernisation and expansion plans at an estimated cost of Rs 60,200 crores, informed the Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Mr Paswan said as per the plan SAIL proposes to modernise and expand capacity at its plants to increase production of hot metal from present level of 14.6 Million Tonnes (MT) per annum during 2006-07 to 26 MT per annum by the year 2010-11 at a present indicative cost of Rs 49,000 crores.

He added that apart from augmenting the production capacity at the plant, the plan also envisages removal of technological obsolescence, reduction in energy consumption, improvement in product mix, up gradation of pollution control measures and augmentation of infrastructure facilities in all the plants to support higher production.

The minister said SAIL has already approved the expansion of all major steel plants namely IISCO, Bokaro Steel Plant, Bhilai Steel Plant, Rourkela Steel Plant, Durgapur Steel Plant and Salem Steel Plant.

Similarly, the RINL proposes to expand its capacity to increase production of hot metal from the present level of 4.05 MT per anum from the 2006-07 to 6.50 MT per annum by the year 2009-20 at a present indicative cost of Rs 11,200 crores. The work has already commenced, Mr Paswan added.

UNI