IOP Bureau

New Delhi; Sep 25, 2020:

In a bid to bring in greater efficiency and decentralization the union government has announced restructuring of the Board of Steel Authority of India Ltd. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved to elevate 04 posts of the Chief Executive Officers of Integrated Steel Plants of SAIL as Functional Directors, by designating them as Directors-in- charge of Bokaro, Rourkela, Bhilai and one Director-in-charge jointly for Burnpur and Durgapur steel plants.

The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), one of India's fastest growing Public Sector Units (PSU) and a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), owned and operated by the Government of India with an annual turnover of Rs 66,267 crore as per the fiscal year 2018-19 report, was incorporated on January 24, 1974. SAIL has 69,808 employees (as of Feb - 2020).

With an annual production of 16.30 million metric tons, SAIL is the 20th largest steel producer in the world and the third-largest in India. The Hot Metal production capacity of the company will further increase and is expected to reach a level of 50 million tonnes per annum by 2025. Anil Kumar Chaudhary is the current Chairman of SAIL.

The approved restructuring of the SAIL Board also involves merging the functions and duties of the post of Director (Raw Materials and Logistics) and that of Director (Projects, and Business Planning)with the post of Director (Technical) and its consequent re-designation as Director(Technical, Projects and Raw Materials).

The re-structured Board of Directors of SAIL will consist of Chairman, Director (Finance), Director (Commercial), Director (Technical, Project and Raw Materials), Director (Personnel), Directors in-charge of ISPs, Non-official Directors as per the Companies Act. 2013 and 02Government Nominee Directors as per the DPE policy.

The restructuring of the board will facilitate greater de-centralization and nimble decision making with the Directors-in-charge of plants as direct ACC appointees, with their views having weight in the central corporate governance structure. This will also facilitate speedy modernization and expansion program of SAIL.

SAIL operates and owns five integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro and Burnpur (Asansol) and three special steel plants at Salem, Durgapur and Bhadravathi. It also owns a ferroalloy plant at Chandrapur. As a part of its global ambition, the company is undergoing a massive expansion and modernisation programme involving upgrading and building new facilities with an emphasis on the state of the art green technology. SAIL has a Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS), centre for Engineering in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

SAIL has a vision of reaching 50 Million Tonnes of capacity through brownfield/greenfield expansion and this input has also been considered while formulating the National Steel Policy 2017, having vision of 300 Million Tonnes capacity in the country by 2030-31. Directors as in-charge of ISPs would in turn be critical in having the corporation respond with agility in a globally challenging environment.

Representational Image - Durgapur Steel Plant - clean environment – Source - Twitter Handle of Ministry of Steel

Cold Rolling Mill 3 unit of SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant - Source - Twitter Handle of SAIL Bokaro Steel Plant