NMDC's upcoming steel unit in Bastar receives first rake of imported coal

NMDC's upcoming 3-million tonne greenfield steel unit at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district received its first rake of imported coking coal on Monday. The plant also inaugurated its Wagon Tippler at the Raw Material Handling System (RMHS) bringing it on the threshold of commissioning. The Wagon Tippler is a critical part of the Rs 1395-crore Raw Material Handling System (RMHS) of Nagarnar Steel Plant.

With these two developments, NMDC said it is looking forward to starting production at the Nagarnar Steel Plant by July 2019.

The 4,106 tonne of coal which arrived in 59 wagons is part of the first consignment of 80,000 tonnes of coal that had been imported from Australia and offloaded at Visakhapatnam Port last week, a NMDC statement said. Imported coking coal and indigenous coal is blended and charged into the Blast Furnace along with iron ore to produce Hot Metal. In all, four Wagon Tipplers will be utilized at Nagarnar Steel Plant to offload 12 million tonnes of incoming raw material (iron ore, coking coal, limestone, etc.) that would be required annually to produce three million tonnes of steel.


Umesh Singh, General Manager, East Coast Railway flagged off the first rake through the Nagarnar Steel Plant siding at Amaguda station on Monday morning in the presence of senior officials. Top NMDC executives, including chairman and MD Baijendra Kumar and Director-Technical N K Nanda, thanked the Indian Railways for its support.