Bhilai

Overview

Bhilai is an industrial city in the Durg district of Chhattisgarh, central India. It is best known as the location of the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), one of the largest integrated steel-producing facilities in India, operated by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The city, together with the adjoining municipalities of Durg, Charoda and Risali, forms the Bhilai–Durg urban agglomeration, one of the largest urban centres in Chhattisgarh.

Key facts

Geography

Bhilai lies in the eastern part of the Chhattisgarh plain, on the Mumbai–Howrah trunk railway line and the Mumbai–Kolkata National Highway corridor. The Shivnath River, a tributary of the Mahanadi, flows in the vicinity and is an important source of water for both the township and the steel plant. The terrain is largely flat, and the surrounding region is rich in iron ore, limestone and dolomite, the principal raw materials used by the steel industry.

Background

Before the establishment of the steel plant, Bhilai was a small village in the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh state. Its transformation into an industrial township began in the mid-1950s when the Government of India selected the site for one of the country's first public-sector integrated steel plants, set up under the Second Five-Year Plan with technical and financial collaboration from the Soviet Union. The plant was a flagship project of the Hindustan Steel Limited, the precursor to SAIL.

Timeline

• 1955: An Indo-Soviet agreement is signed for the construction of an integrated steel plant at Bhilai.
• 1959: The first blast furnace of the Bhilai Steel Plant is commissioned, and the plant begins production.
• 1960s–1970s: Successive expansions raise the plant's capacity, and the township grows around the works in planned sectors.
• 1973: The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is incorporated; BSP becomes one of its principal units.
• 2000: Bhilai becomes part of the newly created state of Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh.
• 2010s: A major modernisation and expansion programme is undertaken at BSP to raise hot-metal capacity and add a universal rail mill.

Bhilai Steel Plant

The Bhilai Steel Plant is the principal economic anchor of the city. It is notable for being India's sole producer of long steel rails for Indian Railways, including long-welded rail panels, and is a major supplier of structural steel, plates, and merchant products. The plant has historically been among SAIL's most profitable units and has been awarded the Prime Minister's Trophy for the best integrated steel plant in India multiple times.

Civic administration and township

The municipal area is administered by the Bhilai Municipal Corporation. In addition, a large portion of the residential and industrial area is administered as a separate township by the Bhilai Steel Plant, which provides housing, schools, hospitals and civic services for plant employees. The city is laid out in numbered sectors, a planned layout designed during the original construction of the township.

Education and institutions

• Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai (IIT Bhilai) – established in 2016, one of the newer IITs.
• Bhilai Institute of Technology (BIT), Durg – a long-standing engineering college in the region.
• Shri Shankaracharya Group of Institutions – engineering and management institutions located in the Bhilai–Durg area.
• A network of Kendriya Vidyalayas and BSP-run senior secondary schools serves the township.

Transport

Bhilai is well connected by rail and road. Bhilai Power House and Bhilai Nagar are major stations on the Howrah–Mumbai main line of South East Central Railway, with Durg Junction nearby serving as a terminating station for several long-distance trains. National Highway 53 (formerly NH 6) passes through the city. The nearest airport is Swami Vivekananda Airport at Raipur