Thaindian News

Raipur, June 16 (IANS) State-run steel manufacturing unit Bhilai Steel Plant has set a target of 5.8 million tonnes of hot metal production for 2009-10, it was announced here Tuesday.
The Bhilai unit, the largest steel producing plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), is planning to produce 5.8 million tonnes of hot metal, 5.53 million tones of crude steel and 4.77 million tones of saleable steel during the current fiscal, an official statement said.

The plant had seen a record production last fiscal. It produced 5.4 million tonnes of hot metal, 5.2 million tonnes of crude steel and 4.5 million tonnes of saleable steel in 2008-09, the statement added.

The Bhilai unit has made major progress in its efforts to bag a massive iron ore reserve in Chhattisgarh’s southern Bastar region for mining, a senior official told IANS.

The plant has been eyeing the 2,028-hectare Rowghat Iron Ore Mine-Deposit F in Matla reserve forests for a long time.

The official, who did not want to named, said the plant has received an environmental clearance notification earlier this month from the ministry of environment and forests.

The Deposit F has an annual production capacity of 14 million tonnes.

The Rs.2,500-crore Rowghat project is considered to be the lifeline for the Bhilai plant as its existing source of iron ore at Dalli Rajhara in Durg district hardly has stocks to feed the plant for three-four more years.

“The plant is set to bag Rowghat’s massive F deposit for which the plant management was striving since August 1983 when a first proposal for mining lease was moved,” the official said.