Foundation stone laid for SPU in Gwalior

New Delhi: The Steel Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, laid the foundation stone for the SAIL’s Rs 83-crore SPU at Billowa in Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh in the presence of Chief Minister, Mr Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan, and the SAIL Chairman, Mr S.K. Roongta, among others.

The Steel Authority of India Ltd’s programme to set up steel processing units (SPUs) in far flung areas to cater directly to customer specifications went a step ahead today with the laying of the foundation stone of its fifth SPU.

The other four units for which work has started are Betia and Manhar, in Bihar, and Hosangabad and Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh.

The Gwalior SPU will produce TMT bars with diameters ranging between 8 mm and 25 mm by using billets supplied from Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). The SPU will have a TMT bar mill with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year.

The company plans to complete the project in 18 months, it said in a release.

The objective behind setting up these SPUs is to ensure supply of quality TMT to the local customers, Mr Roongta said.He said the Bhilai Steel Plant, which had been part of Madhya Pradesh, had now become a part of Chhattisgarh. But, by setting up three SPUs in Madhya Pradesh, SAIL is relinking Bhilai to Madhya Pradesh once again.

Mr Paswan said that steel demand in the country was growing at 13 per cent a year while production is increasing 6 per cent annually. This demand-supply gap opens up strong opportunity for growth of the domestic steel manufacturing, he said.