SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant’s special grade structural steel channels for BSF

03 October 2016

A day after India’s surgical strike on terror hubs in Pakistan, Steel Authority of India’s Bhilai Steel Plant said it has flagged off the first consignment of special grade structural steel channels to the Border Security Force (BSF) for construction of Bailey bridges to facilitate troop movement in high altitude areas in Leh.

The first lot of around 425 tonnes of the special grade steel channels was flagged off from Bhilai Steel Plant’s Merchant Mill on Thursday. It will be especially useful in sub-zero climatic conditions. The consignment will move from Bhilai Steel Plant to Bokaro Stockyard from where the material would subsequently be sent for ground applications in Leh’s mountainous terrain giving our armed forces a strong foothold amidst hostile climatic conditions.

Bhilai Steel Plant, one of SAIL’s best performing units, was however, initially skeptical about accepting this order. A Plant official said the main apprehension stemmed from “lack of previous experience and also due to inherent difficulties in manufacturing this special grade– referred to as ‘IS 2062 E410 Grade C (Killed) steel’– through steel melting shop (SMS-1) route.” The process also required Impact Testing at subzero temperature (– 20 °C).

The plant has already been supplying specially toughened warship grade steel plates for the Indian Navy. The DMR 249 A grade plates rolled out in Bhilai’s Plate Mill have been used in construction of India’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The special steel plates are also being used in construction of other warships that are being indigenously built for the Indian Navy in different shipyards of the country. The Plant has also supplied structural steel being used by the Army for border fencing.

Source – Economic Times