The Steel Authority of India ltd (SAIl) will go for carrying out a complete Safety Audit of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) as per IS 14489 — 1998 standards, officials informed.
BSP has plans of increasing production of hot metal and crude steel through state-of-the-art technology as part of its mega expansion project currently underway at the plant, officials informed.
The expansion project also involves phasing out of low yield and energy intensive units, reduction of semis by enhancing finished steel production; broadening and value addition in product-mix for higher flexibility and profitability.
Notably, commercial production of world class 130 metre long rails from the new Universal Rail Mill of Bhilai Steel Plant began in November last year.
The 130-meter rail rolled at URM would be World’s longest rail in a single piece. The hot trials for rolling and straightening of rails were underway and after seeking all required clearances from third party inspection agency M/s RITES, commercial production from URM has begun.Despatch of the first rake from this new facility would take place in about two days, a BSP press release informed.
The entire team of M/S SMS MEER Germany, M/s ABB and M/S SMS MEER India and the Projects team of Bhilai Steel Plant along with SR Babu, DGM worked relentlessly to achieve this significant milestone.
M Ravi, Chief Executive Officer, Bhilai Steel Plant congratulated the entire team on the achievement of this major milestone.
The new URM established at a cost of about Rs. 1200 crore is part of SAIl-Bhilai Steel Plant’s modernization programme that would scale up capacity to 7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
About 1480 running meters of new Mixed gas pipe line of 1500 mm/1200 mm diametre for Bar and Rod Mill (BRM) was successfully commissioned on December 31 last year.
The BRM gas header has been designed by MECON and laid by M/s Tata Projects limited under Projects-Utility Zone for 7MT expansion projects, a BSP press release had informed.
The construction of pipe trestles and erection of the pipe line, both were herculean tasks, fraught with risks, because of the live gas main running parallel to it, it stated.
In order to ensure safety site, lots of safety precautions were taken such as cordoning off of the area, strengthening of columns, protection of live gas mains and extensive usage of PPE’s.
Additional features incorporated in the new gas main are MS pipe with 0.02 % of copper, use of Steel Bellow compensators in place of disc compensators, Nitrogen purging facilities and U-seal isolation for safe shutdown of gas network. The gas line erection, testing and commissioning is done under the guidance of Gas Safety of Energy Management Department. Reheating Furnace was lighted up on January 1, 2017.
The various agencies involved in the safe and successful commissioning of the BRM gas line were Project (Utilities), EMD, MECON, BRM and M/S Tata Project.