The modernisation of the Indian Iron and Steel Company, the country's oldest steel plant here is to be completed by early next year.
According to company sources, the modernised plant with an enhanced production capacity is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sometime around March next year.
The modernisation work in the century-old Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) started on December 24, 2006 with a budget of Rs 9,000 crore. The cost has since escalated to Rs 17,000 crore, sources said.
The production capacity in the IISCO would be more than 2.5 million tonnes per annum from the present 0.4 million tonnes.
The plant had fallen on bad days in the 1960s after it suffered from technological obsolescence and failed to catch up with the latest in steel-making technology.
Adding to its woes were the persistent trade union problems which forced the government to take over the management of the company in July, 1972.
Thereafter, it was nationalised and made a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAIL.
Among the new facilities to be installed are a large-volume blast furnace, coke oven battery, two sinter plants, three converters with continuous billet and beam blank/bloom casters, heavy section mill of 0.6 million tonne capacity and wire rod & bar mill of 1.2 million tonne capacity.
