Rourkela: The steel plant here recommissioned its first blast furnace, Parvati, on May 8. It has been rebuilt with state-of-the- art features and increased capacity.

Chief executive officer of Rourkela Steel Plant Ashwini Kumar blown in the furnace on Tuesday. Terming this as a historic moment for the steel plant, he said: "With the blowing in of the blast furnace, the RSP is poised to take a quantum leap in its performance."

"The 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," he said.

Parvati was first blown in on January 24, 1959. It was dedicated to the nation on February 3, 1959, by the then President Rajendra Prasad. The blast furnace had undergone five major relining and repairs. However, finally it was put down on August 5, 2013, for total rebuilding. The furnace was completely demolished and a brand new furnace was designed on the same foundation with available space and resources.

The new furnace has been constructed at a cost of about Rs 615 crore. "The rebuilt blast furnace has been laced with modern technology and is much bigger and also technologically more advanced than its earlier version," said an engineer working with the steel plant. The volume of the furnace has increased from 1139 meter cube to 1710 meter cube.

This will result in the enhancement annual production capacity of the furnace from 0.438 million tonnes to 1.015 million tonnes. The dust catcher attached to it will also be of immense help in curbing air pollution. The new furnace will also reduce the dependence on coal which will, in turn, improve carbon footprint.