Government to allow all types of steel to be used for highway construction

Union Government  announced that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued orders that all types of steel will be allowed for the construction of highways in the country.

The Ministry in statement said ,” all steel to be allowed to be used for highway construction whether produced from ore, billets, pellets or melting of scrap – would be allowed to be used for National Highway construction, as long as it meets the standards required for specific grades of steel.

LEARNING FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen. Steel is the world’s most important engineering and construction material.

The iron and steel industry is the basic industry since all the other industries — heavy, medium and light, depend on it for their machinery. Iron and steel is a heavy industry because all the raw materials as well as finished goods are heavy and bulky entailing heavy transportation costs.

India is currently the 2nd largest producer of crude steel in the world. Odisha is the highest steel producing state in the country. The ores of Odisha are rich in haematites.

Bhilai, Durgapur, Burnpur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro are situated in a region that spreads over four states — West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Bhadravati and Vijay Nagar in Karnataka, Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu are other important steel centres utilising local resources

West Bengal

Bengal Iron Work company; Steel was first manufactured by modern methods at Kulti (near Asansol in West Bengal).

Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO): Bengal Iron Work Company who taken over by IISCO. It was set up at Burnpur in 1919 and comprises three units which are located at; Hirapur-Hirapur produces pig iron; Kulti – making steel;Burnpur – steel rolling mill.This company was nationalised in 1972.

Durgapur Steel Plant:It was set up in Burdwan district with the help of U.K.

Jharkhand

Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO);(Jamshedpur).Oldest and the largest iron and steel centre of India.

Bokaro Steel Plant:Located near the confluence of Damodar and Bokaro river with Soviet Collaboration.

Orissa

Rourkela Stee Plant: Established in Sundergarh district with the help of West Germany.

Daittari Steel Plant: It is shore based plant and is served by the Paradip port.

Gopalpur Steel Works:Located about 100 km southeast of Bhubaneswar, a unit TISCO.

Chhattisgarh

Bhilai: Discovery of coking coal in Korba encouraged the government to set up steel plant at Bhilai with the help of Russia.

Karnataka

Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Limited (VISL):Only integrated Iron and steel plant located outside the iron and cola regions of India.

Vijay Nagar Steel Plant:Located at Tornagal near Hospet area of Bellary district,, specialises in making mild steel.

Andhra Pradesh

Vishakhapatnam-Vizag Steel Plant: First shore based steel plant, which is part of the govt.’s policy of industrial decentralisation.

Kothagudem:Steel plant was set up with the assistance of UNDP, which produces sponge iron.

Tamil Nadu

Salem Steel Plant:Produces world class stainless steel and even produces export quality steel.

The National Steel Policy, 2017 envisage 300 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030-31. The per capita consumption of steel has increased from 57.6 kgs to 74.1 kgs during the last five years.

Government introduced Steel Scrap Recycling Policy as it aimed to reduce import.

Mission Purvodaya

  • It was launched in 2020 for the accelerated development of eastern India through the establishment of an integrated steel hub in Kolkata, West Bengal.
  • The focus will be on eastern states of India (Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal) and northern part of Andhra Pradesh which collectively hold ~80% of the country’s iron ore, ~100% of coking coal and significant portion of chromite, bauxite and dolomite reserves.
  • The Integrated Steel Hub would focus on 3 key elements:

    • Capacity addition through easing the setup of Greenfield steel plants.
    • Development of steel clusters near integrated steel plants as well as demand centres.
    • Transformation of logistics and utilities infrastructure which would change the socio-economic landscape in the East.
  • The objective of this hub would be to enable swift capacity addition and improve overall competitiveness of steel producers both in terms of cost and quality.

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