January 11, 2002
‘18’
DURGAPUR STEEL PLANT DEVELOPS NEW LOCO WHEELS
Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), a public sector undertaking of the Steel Ministry, has for the first time developed meter gauge loco wheels for the Railways. Before this, the Railways had to import these wheels from outside. DSP also plans to develop soon, special type CONCOR wheels for the public sector Container Corporation of India Ltd.
The plant is going to set up an eight crore online testing facilities for its wheel products during the current financial year. This would facilitate faster and more accurate testing of wheels despatched for the Railways. The plant is hopeful of making net profit in the next financial year with steady improvement in its different parameters.
The blast furnace III of the plant is set to join in the production line by the end of this fiscal. This will help to raise its overall production by 10 per cent beyond the rated capacity. The total saleable steel production of DSP during April -December 2001was 1.52 million tonnes surpassing previous best 1.49 million tonnes during the corresponding period. The plant did better in the areas of hot metal, sinter and blend mix production.