A corpus of over ₹200 crore has been created for setting up of the Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI), with the objective of making India self-reliant in special steels and making the country a metallurgical hub.

Sashi Shekhar Mohanty, Director Technical of SAIL, said, “While the Government of India, through Steel Development Fund of the Steel Ministry has contributed ₹100 crore to this corpus, the rest of the funds have come through contributions from various steel companies in the country.”

Mohanty, who also serves as the President, Indian Institute of Metals, said SRTMI is aimed at making India a metallurgical hub and self-reliant in various special steels that the country requires, be it in defence and space, or civilian applications.

Steel industry’s role Speaking on the sidelines of the national seminar on ‘Processing and applications of advanced metallic materials’, hosted by Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani), he cited the example of how Indian steel industry played a critical role in supply of special steel required to indigenously develop the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, to be rolled out in 2016-17 from Cochin Shipyard.

He said Indian steel makers, including SAIL, could meet the requirement of about 40,000 tonnes of special grade steels required to build the aircraft carrier, now at an advanced stage of completion. The Ministry of Steel, and major steel companies, including Tata Steel, JSW Steel, RINL, JSPL, NMDC and Mecon, had entered into an agreement in April to take forward this initiative, conceptualised by a task force under the Steel Ministry. Its focus would be on addressing priority areas of national importance.

M Narayana Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of Midhani, said, “As a Government of India enterprise with expertise in special steels, we see huge synergies with some of the steel manufacturing companies, including Visveswaraya Iron & steel Plant, Bhadravati, in Karnataka.”

‘Long process’ He added, “There is a long drawn process for developing special steels. While melting takes place at Bhadravati under the electro slag refining process, it is brought to Midhani. It is later shifted to Ordnance Factory, and then to Kolkata. Therefore, we see potential to form joint ventures with Bhadravati steel,” he said.

This calls for cooperation between the Ministry of Steel and Defence to take it forward and potentially form a joint venture, Rao said.

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