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 of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is located at Burnpur, near

Asansol. The turbulent history of the plant, starting from its pioneering days, has found it a
place in industrial history.

It was the second integrated steel plant, after Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. (TISCO) at
Jamshedpur, to come up in India and for many years, these two were the only steel plants in
the country. It has rich history that goes back to the days when James Erskine pioneered the
production of iron in this country at nearby Kulti. Modern metallurgy was introduced to India
at Kulti with the setting up of the first blast furnace using coal instead of charcoal.

IISCO Steel Plant

 
[hide]

u ë Emergence of Kulti
u  Burnpur gets going
u  Delay in modernisation
u G Trade union activity
u u Modernisation inaugurated
u ΠReferences
u º Note
u è See also
u ÿ External links

  
 
James Erskine founded the Bengal Iron Works in ëèº . His open top furnaces using raw coal
(instead of coke as is now done), poor grade iron ore available locally and bullock carts for
transportation went into operation in ëèºu at Kulti, then better known as Kendwa. It was a
big leap forward for Indian metallurgy. Although India had been producing steel from ancient
times, all such attempts were made with charcoal.[i

 ] Coal was discovered in India in
뺺G and coalmining started in the Asansol-Ranigunj area around ëè -ëè .

India's first blast furnace (open top)with coke oven battery in the foreground at Kulti
In the first decade of the last century Kulti also produced steel utilising open hearth furnaces.
However, the efforts did not survive the competition from imported steel. Therefore, although
Kulti was the first plant in the country to produce both iron and steel, credit is normally given
to TISCO because it did it on a continuous basis. World steel production was around u
million tonnes (against more than a billion tonnes at present.)

Operating an industrial unit in those days was extremely difficult.[i

 ] The plant at
Kulti changed hands many times. For some time, it was operated under the Public Works
Department of the Government. That was in an age when even the concept of public sector
had not germinated. Somewhere in the last decade of the nineteenth century Sir Rajendranath
Mookerjee and Sir Acquin Martin, who had together founded Martin & Co. bought over the
plant at Kulti and helped it to survive.

They were also responsible for opening the first iron ore mine at Pansiraburu in Singhbhum
district in what was then Bengal and now Jharkhand, in ëÿ ë. The discovery of iron ore
effectively laid the foundation for the iron and steel industry in India. TISCO started
operations in ëÿ è.

  


Sir Biren Mookerjee lighting coke oven battery at Burnpur

The possibility of a second steel plant in the country was opened up with disruption of
supplies of iron and steel from Europe during the First World War. Burn & Co. promoted The
Indian Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. in ëÿëè. G.H.Fairhurst is credited with having founded the plant
at Burnpur. The blast furnaces were not of the open top type as at Kulti and coke oven
batteries were also built to provide coke for the furnaces. However, bullock carts continued to
be used for transportation. The first blast furnace went into operation in ëÿ and the second
in ëÿG.

Amongst those associated with the plant at Burnpur were Sir Rajen Mookerjee and T.Leslie
Martin (Sir Acquin¶s son). Sir Biren Mookerjee, Sir Rajen¶s son, who had a role in the
growth and development of the plant joined a few years later. Bengal Iron was merged with
IISCO in ëÿŒ. In those days, the plants used to export pig iron to Japan.
the last set of Bessemer Converters in the world in operation at Burnpur till the eighties

Steel Corporation of Bengal (SCOB) set up the steel plant at Burnpur adjacent to the iron
making facilities of IISCO in ëÿÿ. The two were merged and operated under the managing
agency of Martin Burn in the early fifties. The plant was expanded to an annual capacity of ë
million tonnes and it achieved rated capacity in the early sixties. IISCO was a highly profit
making concern and its shares were quoted on London Stock Exchange. Within the country,
it had the reputation of being the best place for investment even by widows.[i

]
Investments were considered safe and sound.[i

]

IISCO owed its success largely to the efficient top management team, who steered the
company most effectively.[i

 ]Over the years, that team included H.V.Peeling, Ashok
Chaterjee, John McCracken, F.W.A.Lahmeyer and N.R.Dutt. They were management
legends, long departed but still remembered for their contribution to the growth and
development of the steel plant and life in the township. They took IISCO to great heights of
glory. With high production and profitability, life in the townships was enriched. A new
township was built at Chhotodighari. It was a model township in those days, with numbered
roads lined with flowering trees, an effective sewerage system and underground electric
connections.
Spun pipe production at Kulti

Kulti Works pioneered the production of spun pipes in ëÿGu. Thereafter, the foundries at
Kulti were expanded and the iron making facilities were dismantled.

  
 

Iron and steel technology advanced in leaps and bounds since the Second World War, along
with massive growth in production globally. The technological leap forward left the plant the
plant at Burnpur in shambles. Rising cost of production made the once profit making
organisation a loss-making unit. Coupled with militant labour trouble in the sixties, IISCO
faced a situation of near collapse in the early seventies. The management of IISCO was taken
over by the government on ëG July ëÿº. Subsequently IISCO was nationalised and made a
wholly owned subsidiary of SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd.). At the time of government-
take over IISCO was the third largest private sector company (after TISCO and Telco) in
India.

There were two major obstacles to modernisation of IISCO. The first was the non-availability
of funds for the gigantic task. Around Rs. u, crores were required for the modernisation
programme. The second obstacle was the massive reduction in manpower.

In the seventies, SAIL was a loss-making organisation, entirely dependent on budgetary

support of the government. The situation was reversed after V.Krishnamurthy took over as
chairman of SAIL. He made SAIL a profit-making organisation and from the eighties SAIL
has functioned without any budgetary support of the government. It has stood on its own feet.
Krishnamurthy also initiated the programme for the modernisation of the steel plants at
Durgapur, Rourkela and Burnpur. While the programme at Durgapur and Rourkela succeeded
and are bearing fruit, the modernisation of Burnpur was struck down by political and trade
union intervention.

During the days of private management, IISCO had manpower of ëè, for a production of
ë million tonnes of steel at Burnpur. In spite of decline in production, considerable additional
manpower was added in the last days of private management. With government takeover, the
manpower swelled to è, . The consortium of Japanese steel companies, which was
planning for the modernisation of IISCO proposed manpower of ëG, for a production of
.ë million tonnes. That became a source of bitterness although officially everybody accepted
the proposal formally. In today¶s context, the manpower requirement for a steel plant has
gone down even further. Globally, the thumb rule is ë, workers for a production of ë
million tonnes. In South Korea, POSCO produces è million tonnes with around ë ,
workers.

With the resignation of Rajiv Gandhi¶s government in ëÿèÿ, the proposal for the
modernisation of IISCO fell through. Thereafter various proposals were mooted, including
privatisation of IISCO, but nothing matured. Even with a clean balance sheet, after all loans
were written off, there were no takers for IISCO against global tenders. IISCO was virtually
in the dock facing the threat of being closed down. After earning profits for ëG years in a row,
SAIL was once again in the red when the entire steel industry was in the doldrums from the
late nineties. Things started looking up from  - G and SAIL was back in profits. It has
taken up a massive programme of expansion/modernisation with an investment of around Rs.
u, crores encompassing all its plants, after it has completed its modernisation programme
costing Rs. ëu, crores.

 
  
The first trade union was established in IISCO in ëÿG. Prof. Abdul Bari was associated with
it for some time. Gopeswar, who later became national president of the Indian National Trade
Union Congress (INTUC), operated at Burnpur and was all along been associated with
IISCO. He has represented the workers on the boards of many companies. The famous strike
in ëÿu led to the formation of Action Committee, which later emerged as a wing of the All
India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). Since its split, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions
(CITU) played a big role in IISCO affairs, their leaders being Chandrasekhar Mukherjee and
Bamapada Mukherjee. Amongst other leaders who need a mention are Taher Hussein and
Nitish Sett of AITUC.

For many years, the trade unions and IISCO Officers¶ Association have worked in unison
under the banner of the Save IISCO Committee. On the positive side, the trade unions were
responsible for the increase in wages and improvements in working conditions of the
workers. However, it is yet to be seen as to what role they play in a completely changed
scenario. Steel workers are amongst the best paid in the organised sector of Indian
industry.[i

] The IISCO workforce is particularly reputed for its strong sense of
belonging. [i

] Many of them are second or even third generation employees.

 
 
 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the work for a Rs. ÿ,Œ crore modernisation
programme at Burnpur on G December  Œ. It is the largest investment in West Bengal in
the last ten years. [ë]

The programme envisages the installation of state-of-the-art environment-friendly and

energy-efficient steel making technology. It will help ISP multiply its crude steel production
capacity from the present .u million tonnes to .u million tonnes by the year  ë . Among
the new facilities that will be installed as part of ISP¶s expansion 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 .Πmillion tonne capacity and wire rod &
bar mill of ë. million tonne capacity. Besides increase in steel production, the new facilities
will provide the plant with a competitive edge in terms of manpower productivity and other
techno-economic parameters like blast furnace productivity, coke rate, energy consumption,
etc. []

  
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IISCO Steel Plant (ISP), an integrated steel plant in Burnpur, has the capacity to produce G.Œ
lakh tonnes of saleable steel and .uG lakh tonnes of pig iron annually. ISP, the erstwhile
Indian Iron & Steel Company (IISCO), which was a ë
subsidiary of Steel Authority of
India Limited (SAIL) has been amalgamated with the parent company with effect from ëŒ
February  Œ.
ISP produces a large number of steel structurals and special sections as well as pig iron. the
plant pioneered the production of centre ±sill Z-section used in the fabrication of wagon and
Z-type sheet piling section used in construction of barrages, bridge foundations and other
projects and colliery arch section used for roof support in collieries. The plant has also
developed µslit rolling¶ for small diameter rounds (ë mm and ë TMT), which are in high
demand in the domestic market.

The plant is set to undego modernisation-cum-capacity expansion though which its hot metal
production capacity will be raised to .u MT by  ëë-ë.

ISP is accredited with ISO ÿ ë QMS for its Heavy Structural Mill and Merchant &
Rod Mill. It has also been awarded ISO ëG ë G EMS for its entire Rolling Mill
Complex.



ISP is situated at Burnpur near Asansol in the Burdwan district of West Bengal.

% 

The origin of ISP can be traced to ëèºG when James Erskine founded the Bengal Iron Works
and set up a plant at Kulti (in West Bengal) to produce pig iron. In ëÿëè, the erstwhile IISCO,
promoted by Burn and Company, came into being after changing hands several times. The
manufacture of steel at Burnpur started in ëÿÿ. By the middle of the ëÿŒ s, the plant, under
the chairmanship of industrialist Sir Biren Mookerjee, was producing one million tonne a
year. On July G, ëÿº, the company was taken over by the Government of India. In March
ëÿºÿ, it was made a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAIL.

The erstwhile IISCO was once quoted on the London Stock Exchange, and had the pride of
place on the Calcutta Stock Exchange in the early ëÿŒ s.

&    

'
Two coke oven batteries each of height G.u m and capacity ëè.Œ t of dry coal

& 

Two blast furnaces each of useful volume ëëº cu m

  (

ë Twin Hearth Furnace of ëë t capacity


  
 Soaking Pits;
Blooming Mill capacity .ÿ Mtpa
Billet Mill capacity .è Mtpa
Heavy Structural Mill capacity .u Mtpa
Light Structural Mill capacity .ë Mtpa
Merchant & Rod Mill capacity .ëu Mtpa

&   






All environmental parameters like SPM, SOX, NOX, water testing are regularly undertaken
to meet the Pollution Control Board norms. The department is equipped with latest testing
facilities.

  
Computerized Integrated Maintenance and Materials Management System (IMMMS) based
on CA-OpenIngres RDBMS under HP-UX.
A Sun Solaris network running Oracle RDBMS in Finance department.
Email and internet facilities.



ISP runs  Higher Secondary, ë Secondary and G Primary schools providing subsidised
education to more than º students. Besides, ë co-educational English medium CBSE
school with   students is supported by the company.

%(

A u -bedded Central Hospital with facilities like modern OT, ICU, ICCU, Dialysis unit,
Dental, isolation ward, blood bank, physiotherapy. Besides, there are Clinics in all townships
and Occupational Health Centre in the plants.

)
IISCO Steel Plant
Mr. Bhaskar Kumar,
Chief of Communications
PR Department,
º, The Ridge, Burnpur
Email kbhaskarºrediffmail.com
Tel  ÿë - Gë - G G
Fax  ÿë - Gë - Gëu Œ