Team News Riveting
New Delhi, June 22
The Minister of Steel and Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan today inaugurated several important projects in Karnataka, executed by the Steel Public Sector Undertaking KIOCL, formerly known as Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited.
The projects include an oxygen generator plant, 50 beds at Govt. Hospital, 5 MW solar power plant, and barrel type blender reclaimer. The Minister of State for Steel, Faggan Singh Kulaste was also present on the occasion.
KIOCL has donated one oxygen generation plant of capacity 1000 m3/day with an investment of around Rs. 90 Lakhs which will help to treat around 100 covid patients per day. The plant has been handed over to AIMS, Karnataka which is run by Sri Adichunchanagiri Shikshana Trust. Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) was established in 1986 at BG Nagar, Sri Adichunchanagiri Kshetra, Mandya District.
The company has distributed 50 beds for taking care of Covid patients at various places in Dakshina Kannada Districts. Now, the company is donating 50 beds to the Govt. Hospital located at Moodabidri for the purpose of Covid patients. The Company spent around Rs 18 Lakhs for providing beds at Govt. Hospitals.
The 5 MW Solar Power Plant at Kathrikehal Village, Chikkanayakanahalli, Tumkur district in Karnataka has been set up at a total cost of Rs 24.44 crore. The total capacity of the company has now gone up to 6.35 MW. The solar power generation will help in meeting the KIOCL Limited Power requirement to the extent of 5 MW out of the total demand of 30 MW requirement for its Pellet Plant at Mangalore. The initiative taken by KIOCL will also help in bringing down the power cost, thereby will help in reducing the production cost of the Pellet Plant. The estimated power generation from the plant is 10 million Kwh per annum and approximate savings from this Rs 6.2 crore per annum.The estimated life cycle of this plant is 25 years, and payback period is 56 months.
KIOCL Ltd for its 3.5 mtpa pellet plant at Mangalore, as part of modernization of Pellet Plant, has installed a Barrel type Blender Reclaimer of 1000 tons per hour capacity at a cost of Rs.17.50 Crores.This equipment is meant for homogenous blending of various type of iron ore fines by moving forward and backward directions which will help in increasing the operational flexibility.
Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said that the nation saw unprecedented challenges during the second wave of the pandemic, and put enormous stress on the health system. The requirement of medical oxygen shot up in the country, and the steel and petroleum companies, both from the public and private sectors, rose to the occasion and supplied liquid medical oxygen in the country.
He said that the Oxygen requirement in the country went upto over 10,000 MT/day during the last month but steel Companies even undertook production cuts in steel to meet the country’s demand. He said that the Oxygen production capacities are in the Eastern parts of the country while the demand was maximum in the Northern and western parts of the country. The situation was well managed, and capacities were ramped up. Today, there is no dearth of Oxygen concentrators, cylinders and PSA plants in the country.
