The 8th of May, 2018 will remain a historic day for Rourkela Steel Plant as its first Blast Furnace-1 ‘Parvati’ was recommissioned after a complete knockdown.
The first blast furnace of the country under public sector has been rebuilt with state-of-the-art features and additional capacity. The rebuilt furnace, in its new avatar, was blown in by CEO of RSP Ashwini Kumar on 8 May Also present were ED (P&A) P.K.Pradhan, ED (Works) Subhendra Das, and many other senior officers of the Plant.
Terming this as historic the CEO said, “it is indeed a proud moment for me to be part of this history of steel making in India.” The CEO was of the opinion that, “With the blowing in of the BF1, a firm launch pad is already for RSP to take quantum leap in its performance. RSP has already turned around since the third quarter of 2017-18 and with the state of the art furnace it is time to create new benchmarks in productivity and profitability” said Mr Ashwini Kumar.
The Blast Furnace ‘Parvati’ was first blown in on 24th January 1959 and soon after it was dedicated to the nation on 3 February 1959 by the then President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
The blast furnace was taken down 5 times for relining and major repair. However, finally it was put down on 5 August 2013 for total rebuilding. The furnace was completely demolished and a brand new furnace was designed on the same foundation.
The new furnace has been constructed at an expenditure of about Rs 615 crores. The useful volume of the furnace has increased from 1139 meter cube to 1710 meter cube. This enhancement will result in the annual production capacity of the furnace.
Some of the advanced features incorporated in the rebuilt furnace are closed loop cooling system with soft water, new turbo blower for high top pressure, new coal dust injection system, new gas cleaning plant and along with a new dust catcher. It will help in curbing air pollution and improving carbon footprint.