Union Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the 180-ton capacity converter-3 heating process at the state-of-the-art steel melting shop-3 set up under the MODEX scheme at the SAIL-Bhilai steel plant on Thursday, during his visit.
SAIL chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary and top SAIL officials accompanied him.
The inauguration is part of the plant expansion project which will further increase production of crude steel and cast blooms. Minister Dharmendra Pradhan planted a tree in the Bhilai Niwas campus.
He also inspected the plant and dedicated the newly constructed converter number-3 of Steel Melting Shop-3 to the nation. He also attended a review meeting with top officials on steel production and upcoming preparations. Later in the afternoon, he met with representatives of the trade union and officers' union.
It may be noted that SMS-3 has two converters and three casters equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for qualitative steel production it includes two billet casters and one bloom caster. Apart from this, SMS-3 has secondary refining facilities including RH degasser and vacuum arc degassing. The Blooms Cast plant produced at SMS-3 is used for rolling the world's longest 130-meter rails at the Universal Rail Mill (URM).
Earlier, he was accorded welcome by giving guard of honour by CRPF and CEO of Bhilai Steel Plant, Anirban Dasgupta.