Durgapur Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd on Friday put on stream a ₹53-crore ladle furnace of 1 million tonne (mt)-a-year capacity. Inaugurating the unit, SAIL Chairman CS Verma said: “SAIL Durgapur has gone one level up in production of higher quantities of value added steel.” The unit installed in the steel melting shop, became the third such furnace for DSP. It will increase the productivity and speed up supply of liquid steel to the three existing continuous casters and can feed the upcoming bloom-cum-round caster. The new furnace is a part of DSP’s modernisation and expansion plan, meant to enhance its capacity from 1.60 mt of saleable steel to 2.12 mt at a total cost of ₹2,875 crore. This will improve its finished component in its product basket from the present 36 per cent to 64 per cent.