Chhattisgarh's SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant creates a national record

Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), Chhattisgarh-based entity of the state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has made a national record for consecutive heats of rail steel continuously cast in any caster. This came a day before the steel producer’s foundation day.

Almost 315 heats were cast continuously from bloom caster, thereby setting a new benchmark for longest sequence length in any Caster in India, a BSP spokesperson said. The record was previously held by SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant that casted 309 heats.

BSP's Steel Melting Shop 2 produces cast blooms from its bloom casters. The blooms are then rolled into rails at Rail and Structural Mill. SAIL-BSP is the primary supplier of world class rails for Indian railways in lengths up to 260 metres.

In a sequence that began on January 7, 2024 at 03:30 hours, the Plant's SMS-II cast 315 consecutive heats of Rail Steel through the 4-strand Bloom Caster. The sequence ended on 24th January at 2:45 AM, for a planned maintenance shutdown. During the 18-day long sequence, a total of 38,035 tonnes of rail steel blooms were cast, using 20 tundishes and 19 flying tundish operations, the spokesperson said.

Besides SMS-II collective, allied departments including instrumentation, PPC, RED, BF, WMD, T&D, RCL helped in setting the record, the spokesperson added.

SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant has been a contributor in national infrastructure and defence projects. It has supplied around 15,900 tonnes of steel for the recently opened Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, India’s longest sea bridge. Of the 16,300 tonnes of steel supplied by SAIL, the total volume supplied by BSP for use in construction from 2019 to 2023 is 15,883 tonnes including 13,803 tonnes of desired grade and dimension of TMT bars and 2079 tonnes of desired grade of steel plates.