India's Steel and Mines Minister Mr Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday inaugurated the rolling facilities of the new 4300 mm wide state of the art Plate Mill at SAIL's Rourkela plant. He was accompanied by Chairman SAIL Mr CS Verma, Joint Secretary Steel Mr Sunil Barthwal and other SAIL Directors.

The new plate mill is one of the widest plate mills in the country with latest features enabling it to roll plates of very high strength (API X 100). The mill includes advanced features like computerized control system for Plan View Rolling (PVR) process to maximize yield and high capacity levellers with hydraulic control to produce distortion free plates.

The mill has a capacity of 1 million tonne with provision for expanding it to 1.8 million tonnes per annum in future.

SAIL has operationalized the new integrated steelmaking facilities under the ongoing modernization and expansion programme at Rourkela Steel Plant. With commencement of country's second biggest Blast furnace 'Durga' in August 2013, RSP has more than doubled its Hot Metal Capacity from a level of 2 million tonnes per annum to 4.5 million tonnes per annum.