Netherlands firm to set up blast furnace at IISCO steel plant

On a day when the state was preoccupied with the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a mosque in Murshidabad, a major investment of Rs 1,200 crore was quietly finalised for the construction of a new blast furnace at the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) of SAIL in Burnpur.

A contract has been concluded with Danieli Corus for establishing a large greenfield blast furnace with a capacity of 4.3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) at ISP Burnpur in West Burdwan district, the industrial heartland of the state.

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The agreement was signed by IISCO Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with a consortium comprising Danieli Corus India Pvt Ltd and Danieli Corus B.V., Netherlands, to set up a state-of-the-art 4.3 MTPA hot metal producing blast furnace at Burnpur under the 4.08 MTPA Crude Steel Expansion Project.

The upcoming blast furnace, with a useful volume of 5,557 m³, will be among the most advanced and high-tech in the country.

It will incorporate cutting-edge facilities, including a top-fired hot blast stove, dry gas cleaning plant (Dry GCP), top pressure recovery turbine (TRT), slag granulation plant (SGP), pump house, stock house, cast house, and fully integrated dedusting systems.

Notably, the top-fired hot blast stove and Dry GCP will be deployed for the first time in any SAIL plant, marking a significant technological leap in efficiency, energy recovery and environmental performance.

The president of the IISCO Officers’ Association, Sushil Kumar Suman, expressed the workforce’s resolve with clarity: “We will work day and night to fulfil every responsibility entrusted to us by the top management.”

Incidentally, SAIL has planned to expand and modernise IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur, West Bengal, with an investment of Rs 35,000 crore — the largest ever single central investment in a project in the state. ISP Burnpur already boasts the country’s largest blast furnace, named Kalyani.