The Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) - a public sector undertaking run by the Steel Authority of India - was built with Soviet co-operation and technology, and began production in 1959.

BSP is the sole manufacturer of rails and producer of the widest and heaviest plates in India.

Bhilai specializes in the high strength UTS 90 rails, high tensile and boiler quality plates, TMT bars, and electrode quality wire rods.

The plant is the sole supplier of the country's longest rail tracks of 260 metres.

Seven - time winner of Prime Minister's Trophy for best Integrated Steel Plant in the country, Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) is India's sole producer of rails and heavy steel plates and major producer of structural.

Transport & Diesel Organization is a vital department which takes care of all internal and external movement on rails of various raw semi-finished and finished materials involved in running of a steel plant.

Transport & Diesel Organisation comprises two main sections : 1. Traffic Section (Rail Transport)2. Maintenance Wing Traffic Section

Rail Transport is linked up with the technological process of steel making from the beginning of the process and continues till the completion of the process.

a) External traffic : Bringing in Raw Materials and despatch of finished products in association with Indian Railways. Works Station is the main exchange yard of plant connected with double lines to Bhilai Exchange Yard.

b) Internal Traffic : It is mainly for inter-shop movement of various finished and semi finished goods, raw material, scrap, and all other miscellaneous traffic inside the plant. All activities are controlled by five stations and one Peripheral Yard.

1. Works Station and Rolling Mills Post : Despatch of finished products and empty wagons to Bhilai Exchange Yard. Services to Peripheral Yard. Services to auxiliary plant area, disposal stores and Bhilai Stock Yard.

2. Raw Material Station & Plate Mill Post : Supply of coke to BF high lines in case of conveyor belt shutdown. Movement of finished plates and slabs to Works Station, for despatch. Supply of wagons to Plate Mill and Slab Yard, for loading.

3. Blast Furnace Station and Cold Pig Yard : Provide transport facilities to Blast Furnace and Pig Casting Machines. Formation of trains in Cold Pig Yard and dispatch to Works Station. Supply of boiler coal to power generation hopper at PP-I.

4. Steel Station : Provides transport facility to Steel Melting Shop. Movements of heat and mould trains to & from SMS-I. Supply of Ferro Manganese and Ferro Silicon to furnaces.

5. Open Hearth Station and Muck Dump : Dumping of dump car loads from slag yard, and supply empty dump

cars. Dumping of dump car loads from slag yard, and supply empty dump

cars. Services to wagon depot & expansion stores.

6. Peripheral Yard : Provides boiler coal to Power Plant. Handles coking coal through 3 wagon tipplers for the Coke Ovens.

TRAFFIC HANDLING FACILITIES IN T & D ORGANISATION

There are many controls to co-ordinate, activities of Rail Transport Department from one end to other end of the works.

• Railway Signalling Control : Coordinates all the day to day maintenance, repair and inspection of Railway Signalling and communication equipment of T & D Organisation.

• Traffic Control : Co-ordinate with all stations in the works, and with various dispatcher controls of works for all internal traffic movement based on contact schedule system.

• Train Control : Co-ordinate and control all the external traffic activities of the works.

MAINTENANCE WING :

Maintenance of the plant locomotives and the rolling stock (for internal traffic handling) are carried out in the Loco and Wagon Depots of Transport & Diesel Organisation.

1. Loco Depot : The locomotive are subjected to periodical examination and repairs at

prescribed time intervals which are adhered to, for reliable service.

2. Planning& Procurement Group :The group deals with the procurement of spare parts pertaining to loco and wagon depot and is responsible for planning maintenance schedule and overhauling schedule of locos.

3. Wagon Depot :For the internal rolling stock scheduled and preventive maintenance are carried out in this depot.

Railway Signaling and Communication :Most of the external traffic movement and communication are conducted through a system of Central Traffic Control (C.T.C.) which envisages Route Relay Interlocking and Automatic Signaling. Four stations, namely Works Station, R.M. Station, O.H. Station and B.F. Station are provided with C.T.C. facility covering 330 points in the plant. The route relay interlocking for each station comprises an illuminated control panel with necessary switches, push-buttons etc. for operating the points and signaling in its area. Coal Tippler Yard will soon have a panel with locking system on Indian Railways pattern.

Facilities are also provided for emergency working such as canceling of incomplete movements, electrical operation of points under track circuit failure and manual working of points under total failure. The other field equipment are : (a) Level crossing warning signals.(b) Shunting columns for conducting localized shunting from site.(c) Loudspeaker communication.(d) Point to point communication in the yard.(e) Communication with control and adjacent stations.

All the station yards, posts and control rooms have been provided with necessary communication connections to the central traffic control room.

For easy access to Railway communication lines, EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) has been inducted into the system. The addition provides intercom facility.

The science and technology of communication at a distance by electronic transmission of impulses, as by telegraph, cable, telephone, radio, or television.

Telecommunication department is serving the whole plant as well as the township, to achieve higher productivity and better work culture.

Telecommunication department comprises following sections :

1. Plant Exchange : Line communication related to the plant is looked after by this section.

2. Township Exchanges & Cable Lines : Three exchange (include at sector-5 and the hospital) & telephone cable line network for whole township along with satellite colonies is looked after by this section.

3. Plant Cable Lines : The Plant cable line network inside the plant area and some of the township area is looked after by this section.

4. General Communication : This section helps all shops in the production activities. Almost all communication system inside the plant are maintained by this section.

o Despatcher System : It is a hotline communication between different locations in the shops with the centrally located operator by just lifting the telephone.

o Plant Management System (P.M.S.) : It is the loud speaking intercom system wiyh programmable subscriber. 8 sets of total capacity 245 stations are installed at different places inside the plant for helping the production personnel.

o Distributed Amplifier System (D.A.) : It is a loud speaking system used in unmanned areas. All units are connected in parallel.

o Public Address (P.A.) system : It is the announcement system controlled from a single point.

o Closed Circuit Television (C.C.T.V.) system : It is for monitoring of hot metal inside furnace, chimney emission, finished products and various other sites.

o Conference System : This system is installed at different conference halls for effective presentations and day-to day meetings / conferences.

o Pagers : This communication is one way communication facility. During emergency paging can be done for doctors for calling for urgent treatment etc.

o Executive Communication System (Plant Control) : For monitoring of activity of plant and township round the clock, it is an interface between the shop floor and the top management personal.

5. Automanual & Directory Services : This department has infrastructure for computerized up-gradation of telephone directory.

6. Telephone Repair Shop : All types of dial type instruments, push button instruments, plan-7 instruments, plan (1+1) instruments, cordless instruments, handfree telephones, cordless telephones are looked after by the telephone repair shop.

7. Planning, Stores and Workshop : This section looks after the procurement, storage & distribution of spares and other required materials for the department. It also looks after the departmental workshop which provides facilities for in-house fabrication work for telegraph channels, clamps, telephone poles etc.

8. Clock Station : This department comprises a master clock station at Telephone House with slave clocks installed at various locations in the shops throughout the plant, including all the Gate of BSP. All the slave clock and show the same timing.