Jamshedpur, May 23: The Steel Authority of India Ltd has approved the Rs 9,869-crore expansion plan of the Rourkela Steel Plant.

The annual hot metal capacity of the plant will be raised to 4.5 million tonnes.

A technology upgradation exercise will be undertaken to increase the production of crude steel and value-added steel, improve product quality and reduce energy consumption.

Under the modernisation programme, a fifth blast furnace will be set up with a working volume of 4,060 cubic metres and productivity of 2.3 tonnes per metre cube per day.

Besides, blast furnace No.1 in the plant will be reconstructed and upgraded to 1,250 metre volume with high pressure and coal dust injection facilities.

The coal dust injection facility will also be incorporated in blast furnace No. 4, which will double the present hot metal capacity of the plant.

The package also envisages a seven-metre-tall coke-oven battery and a new sinter plant with 3.69mt capacity.

To augment production capacity, the Rourkela plant will install a new 150-tonne converter and a caster to produce clean steel such as ultra-low carbon steel.

Two new matching ladle heating furnaces will also be installed, raising the number of such furnaces to three. One of the existing casters will also be upgraded.

The expansion will raise the total crude steel capacity of the Rourkela plant to 4.2mt.

In view of the increasing demand for high-end products, the Rourkela plant will set up a new plate mill with 1.8mt capacity that will roll out up to 4,200 mm wide plates.