This plant has been set up at Tomagal near Hospet in Bellary district of Karnataka. The plant enjoys the facility of the iron ore from the Hospet region; coal from the Kanhan valley (Chhattisgarh) and Singareni (Andhra Pradesh) coalfields; good quality of lime-stone and dolomite from a distance of 200 km; water from the Tungabhadra reservoir (36 km from the plant site) and cheap hydel power from Tungabhadra project. Here steel would be produced by the Cortex process which makes use of non-coking coal as a reductant in the smelting of iron ore. The plant has capacity of producing 3 million tones of ingot steel.
This is a sea coast based steel plant located at the port city of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It is also well connected with the coalfields of the Damodar valley and iron ore deposits of Bailadila in Chhattisgarh.
The plant also obtains limestone, dolomite and manganese from the mines of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. The plant meets 70 per cent of its requirement of coal through export. Efforts are being made to utilise coal dust to bring down the quantity of imported coal.
Although the foundation stone of the plant was laid in 1971 the work could be started in 1982. The plant was dedicated to the nation in 1992. The VSL is generation ahead in technology than other integrated plants of the country.
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It has a raw material handling system that is highly automated and designed to prepare exact pre-defined blends. It has 7 meter high coke oven batteries with dry quenching facilities. Its blast furnaces are the biggest in the country (3,200 cu.m each). Unlike other plants its steel melting shop employs 100 per cent continuous casting of steel. The VSL has been built up by the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limued.
The total capacity of the plant is to produce 3 million tones of liquid steel per year. In 1997-98 the plant produced 2.54 million tones of liquid steel and 2.25 million tones of saleable steel. The plant is currently operating at 85 per cent of its rated capacity. The quality of steel produced in VSL is at par with global standards. In 1997-98 it exported Rs. 600 crores worth of steel to foreign countries, mainly to China and south East Asia. VSL’s expansion scheme aims at reaching a level of 4.05 million tones of liquid steel by 2001- 02 with the addition of one more steel melt shop. This will involve an expenditure of Rs. 1,000 crores.