Steel technology centre to be set at IIT, Kharagpur

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) The Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Steel today cleared a proposal from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur to set up a Steel Technology Centre at a cost of around Rs 20 crore.

According to official sources, the Centre will play a catalytic role for higher learning and research in the field of steel making.

The Empowered Committee which met under the chairmanship of the Steel Secretary, R S Pandey also cleared a few proposals for augmenting the availability of qualified manpower for the steel industry in future. The Committee also reviewed the progress of the ongoing research projects.

The proposed Steel Technology Centre would be run according to the rules and regulations applicable to such centres already existing at IIT Kharagpur.

IIT Kharagpur will provide facilities like manpower, administrative and infrastructure support and will make available equipment and laboratory. The centre will encourage faculty members to offer more courses on iron and steel, take up research projects relevant to steel industry in India and to encourage students to take up projects relevant to steel sector for dissertation.

It will also carry out laboratory trials of technology developed jointly by the faculty of IIT, Kharagpur, scientists from NML and scientists and engineers from steel industries in which pilot plant trials can be taken up by NML, Jamshedpur and shop floor trials by the concerned industry.

The estimated expenditure of Rs 20 crore (approx) for setting up the center includes, among others, installation of laboratory facilities to address problems in iron and steel making and related areas.

The Department of Science and Technology will bear 20 per cent of the cost including the expenditure on the Chair professor and five research fellows. After five years, the recurring expenditure will be taken care of by the income generating activities of the center.

The Empowered committee also cleared a proposal to create a post of Chair professor in the Department of Metallurgy in IIT, Kharagpur, Benaras Hindu University (BHU) and NITS at Rourkela, Durgapur and Jamshedpur and other institutes, where study of Metallurgical Engineering is pursued at a salary at par with the individual institute's norm. These institutions will also provide scholarships to five undergraduate students in each of them to pursue studies in areas related to iron and steel.

The undergraduate scholarships will carry a monthly stipend of Rs 4,000 per month during the entire period of the course.

The Empowered Committee has also approved a proposal for conducting a study for assessing the manpower requirement for the growing steel industry in the country. The study to be undertaken by the Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata, will project the manpower requirement of different skills from technicians to engineers over the next decade. The report will be submitted by the end of December this year.

The Committee has so far approved 54 projects in the field of basic and applied research amounting to Rs 476.4 crore with Steel Development Fund (SDF) contributing Rs 211 crore.

The SDF has so far released Rs 97 crore. 24 projects have been completed and the research findings have been implemented by the industry yielding significant benefits. Six more projects are currently under review besides 24 other on going projects.

UNI