NDIAN IRON AND STEEL COMPANY

---

Do you Know?

The Indian Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (IISCO) has been the forerunner of the country's gigantic iron and steel industry. Over the years, this Company had undergone many a change, merger and expansion in activities. The history of this company is the history of development of iron & steel industry in this country.

• Way back in 1870 a small plant was founded in the jungles of Kulti to make iron. Starting off as Bengal Iron Works Company, it became Burrakar Iron Works in 1881 and was renamed as Bengal Iron and Steel Company in 1890. Later in 1926 the company again changed its name to Bengal Iron Company Ltd. IISCO set up an iron making plant at Burnpur and Bengal Iron Company was merged with IISCO in 1936. In 1939 Steel Corporation of Bengal started producing steel at their plant at Burnpur which was amalgamated with IISCO in 1953.

• The integrated steel plant IISCO's Burnpur Steel Plant is about 200 km. from Kolkata and is about 10 km. from Asansol Railway Station on the main Howrah Delhi railway line. Started in 1918 as an iron-making unit, steel-making facilities were added in 1939 and the plant was expanded to produce a million tonnes of ingot steel in the late fifties. It has produced over 25 million tonnes of steel till now.

• IISCO has produced pipes sufficient to girdle the globe thrice. Nearly two-thirds of spun pipes required in the country was produced in its Kulti and Ujjain spun pipe plants, having annual capacity of 166,000 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes respectively. Kulti also has a large Foundry Complex with annual capacity of 63,000 tonnes. Kulti plant pioneered the manufacture of spun pipes in 1945. The spun pipe plant Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh was set up in 1964.

• IISCO has its own captive collieries at Chasnalla and Jitpur for supply of metallurgical coke. IISCO's third captive colliery at Ramnagore is around 10 km from Kulti and supplies non-cooking coal to Burnpur. Chasnalla has a pithead Coal Washery and is connected with Burnpur by a 54 km. aerial rope-way. IISCO has its captive mines at Gua and Chiria. Gua is a mechanised mine with reserves of about 250 million tonnes of iron ore and Chiria has a huge deposit of 1970 million tonnes.

• The first Blast Furnaces of IISCO went into production in 1922-24. The steel making facilities, with an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes went into stream in 1939. A capacity of 100,000 tonnes was added during the war years.

• Immediately after the absorption of Steel Corporation of Bengal in 1953, IISCO launched its first expansion programme for Burnpur Works called '1953 Extension' to increase its output of saleable steel to 700,000 tonnes. When IISCO improved its operative efficiency and achieved output beyond its rated capacity another extension programme was launched in 1955.

• With deterioration in raw materials and aging of equipment, the productivity of the plant started declining steadily from 1967-68. The company was taken over by the Government in 1972. The century old foundry at Kulti was modernised to produce high value SG iron and alloy iron castings.

• Over a century of experience in the operation, an industrial and mining complex has been created which represents valuable skills, a strong sense of attachment and a tradition of dedication. IISCO is a collective of around 40,000 dedicated people working in the plants, collieries, ore mines and offices.

• Following the enactment of the Public Sector Industries and Restructuring Act in 1978, the Government and the Financial Institutions having transferred all the Shares of the Company to the Steel Authority of India Ltd; IISCO became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIL from March, 31, 1979.