Mr Ratan N Tata, Chairman, Tata Steel, dedicated the reconstructed ‘F’ Blast Furnace at a function today inside the Steel Works at Jamshedpur.

The upgraded 'F' furnace will be producing 1.0 mtpa of hot metal. It is for the first time in the country that such a substantial increase in capacity of blast furnace has been accomplished. Besides capacity enhancement, the furnace has been equipped with state-of-the-art technology, e.g. high top pressure, compact bell-less top, sophisticated monitoring and control system and up to date Level-I and Level-II automation system, to enable tile operators to produce high quality hot metal at the lowest cost.

The furnace, which was blown-out on 6th February 2002 and after re-building within a record time of 105 days, was blown-in on 22^nd May 2002 and the furnace achieved its rated capacity on the 19^th day of blow-in. The production performance has been steady at over 100% with lower fuel rate than envisaged. The capacity of this 45 year old blast furnace has been upgraded at half the price of a new furnace.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Tata was nostalgic when he said that he worked in the 'F' blast furnace in the 60s for three months and that he was happy to be here to dedicate it. "In Tata Steel we have always converted our dreams into a reality and because of this spirit in the Company, we will continue to make records and also break the records", he added.

Mr B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel, commended M/s Paul Worth, L&T, Engineering and Operations Group of Tata Steel for their consistent efforts towards the upgradation of the furnace. He also said that in today's competitive scenario, this improved version of blast furnace will help Tata Steel in meeting future challenges. Commenting that many could not believe that the Steel Company could rebuild the furnace in a record 105 days, he added that Tata Steel has a culture to better its own records.

While welcoming the guests, Dr T Mukherjee, Dy Managing Director, Tata Steel, praised the teams involved in the project. He said that while overcoming the challenges put forth by the logistics, quality requirements, time constraints, etc the dedicated team of workforce from projects, works, consultants, suppliers, contractors made it possible to blow-in the furnace in a record time.

His Excellency, the Ambassador of Luxembourg, Mr Paul Stiemenz, Mr S R Jain, former Chairman, SAIL, Mr Ramakrishna, MD of L&T and many other dignitaries also attended the function.