The Business Bytes
THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MARCH 16, 2025
State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has announced plans to more than double the production capacity of its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to 9.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030, with an investment of ₹30,000 crore. This ambitious expansion aims to strengthen SAIL’s supply to key industries such as defence, oil and gas, and automobiles.
Currently, RSP contributes 4.4 MTPA to SAIL’s overall production capacity of 20.3 MTPA. Following the expansion, RSP alone will account for about 25% of SAIL’s targeted 35 MTPA production capacity by 2030, said Alok Verma, Director In-Charge, RSP, in an interview with PTI.
Located in Rourkela, Odisha, around 320 km from Bhubaneswar, RSP holds historical significance as India’s first public sector steel plant, established in collaboration with Germany in the 1950s. The plant commenced operations on February 3, 1959, with the lighting of its first blast furnace, Parvati, by then-President Rajendra Prasad.
The planned expansion will cover an area of approximately 1,200 acres on the southeastern side of the plant. Key infrastructure additions will include a new raw material handling plant, a coke oven stamp charge battery, a sinter plant, a thin slab caster-direct rolling facility, a cold rolling mill, and a silicon mill. A new blast furnace and steel melting shop will also be established to support the increased capacity.
RSP produces a diverse range of steel products, including plates, hot rolled (HR) coils, spiral welded and electric resistance welded pipes, and cold rolled non-oriented (CRNO) sheets. These products cater to various industries, including shipbuilding, railway wagons, LPG cylinders, oil and gas, motors, generators, and transformers. Additionally, RSP has a dedicated facility for manufacturing naval-grade and armour-grade plates for defence applications.
To support the expansion, a dedicated railway line connecting Dumertra station to RSP is under construction, facilitating seamless movement of raw materials and finished goods. This will ease congestion at the Bondamunda Yard. The project is being executed by South Eastern Railways under a cost deposit scheme, with RSP already having deposited the requisite funds with Indian Railways.
SAIL, under the Ministry of Steel, is one of India’s top three steel manufacturers. Apart from RSP, it operates four other integrated steel plants — Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) and Burnpur Steel Plant in West Bengal, Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, and Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand.
