NMDC's Nagarnar steel plant in Bastar starts production

New Delhi: NMDC Limited Nagarnar steel plant (NSP) in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district has commenced production, company officials said on Friday.

The plant achieved the feat of producing its final product - HR (hot rolled) Coil on Thursday just nine days after the production of hot metal, they said.

The 3 million tonne per annum capacity steel plant of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), a PSU under the Ministry of Steel, has been built at a cost of approximately Rs 24,000 crore over an area of 1,980 acres in Nagarnar village, more than 300 km away from capital Raipur.

"On August 12, Amitava Mukherjee, acting CMD and Director Finance of NMDC had blown in the plant's blast furnace and set the ball rolling for the final commissioning. The production of the final product - HR Coil was started from Thursday, just nine days after production of Hot Metal in the unit," Rafique Ahmed Jinabade, the plant's General Manager and Chief of Communications said in a statement.

"For over six decades we had been playing a pivotal role in the domestic steel market as a supplier of quality iron ore. With Thursday's (HR coil production) development we emerge as the newest entrant in the domestic steel market and have put Bastar on the steel map," Mukherjee said.

Nagarnar Steel Plant's competitive advantage also stems from its iron ore supply linkage with Bailadila mines (in Dantewada district), barely 100 km from Nagarnar.

The plant will also be producing special types of steels to be used in manufacture of generators, motors, transformers and automobiles at a later stage, it added.

Amid reports of disinvestment of the NSP, Chhattisgarh Chief Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday (August 20) said the central government should not privatize it.

Baghel had also claimed that the state government wants to run the plant but the central government is not allowing it to do so.

Emotions of the people of Bastar are connected to this plant and the Centre should not play with it he had said.

In 2020, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Baghel had urged the Centre not to privatise the upcoming steel plant and in the same year the Chhattisgarh assembly had passed a resolution stating that the house urges the Centre not to disinvest the NSP but if it is done, the state government is ready to buy it.

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