India’s largest steel maker in public sector SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP)CEO A K Rath on Monday cut the cake along with ED (Works) PK Dash, ED (Mines) Biswas, ED (MM), SK Basar and employees working in Blast Furnace 1 to mark the 60 years of commissioning of the plant.
Addressing the gathering, Rath complimented the Blast Furnace collective for operating such an old furnace beyond its capacity for as long as 60 years. Congratulating the Blast Furnace 1 Team, Rath said, Rs Rs could happen because of the excellent work culture exists in steel city Bhilai’’. For public sector steel maker SAIL and more so for its flagship plant Bhilai Steel Plant, celebrating 60 years of producing steel for the nation, the date 4th Feb is a significant.
The journey of production at Bhilai that continues to shine in the steel sector and the public sector arena began on this day, 60 years back, when on 4th Feb 1959, the first hot metal flowed out from Blast Furnace 1 with the pressing of button by the first President of India, Rajendra Prasad. Bhilai Steel Plant was set up with Soviet collaboration, and Blast Fce 1 that was built with the then technology available still stands tall, having cumulatively produced about 24.3 million tonnes of hot metal so far.